Lower Jurassic sauropods from Argentina dental replacement and morphological diversity
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Ben Creisler
11:09 AM (9 hours ago) 11:09 AM
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Ben Creisler
A new paper:
Kevin L. Gomez, José L. Carballido & Diego Pol (2026)
Dental replacement patterns and morphological diversity in Lower Jurassic sauropods from the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Patagonia, Argentina
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2588133
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2588133
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2588133
During their evolution, herbivores have developed various mechanisms to cope with dental wear. One such mechanism was an increase in the number of replacement teeth and in the rate of tooth replacement. However, this aspect has not been extensively studied in early sauropodomorphs, and the few existing studies have focused mainly on Neosauropoda. Here, we describe the dental replacement patterns of five non-neosauropod sauropods from the Lower Jurassic of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Patagonia. These include tooth-bearing bones of the early eusauropods Bagualia alba and Patagosaurus fariasi, jaw remains tentatively assigned to the non-eusauropod sauropod Amygdalodon patagonicus, and two specimens not yet formally named (MACN-CH 934 and MPEF-PV 12010). The results indicate that within the dental morphotypes found, Patagosaurus has teeth with thinner crowns of fine enamel, and without marked apicobasal grooves. On the other hand, Amygdalodon and MPEF-PV 12010 possess up to two replacement teeth for each functional tooth, whereas Bagualia, MACN-CH 934, and possibly Patagosaurus have up to three. Regarding replacement rate, Patagosaurus and specimen MACN-CH 934 show the highest values, which correlate with their distinct dental morphology. These differences in both replacement rates and dental morphology suggest the existence of diverse feeding ecologies among the studied taxa. Therefore, the diversity of dental morphotypes and their associated niche partitioning suggest that sauropod morphological diversity and disparity were greater during the Early Jurassic than previously thought.
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Dental replacement patterns and morphological diversity in Lower Jurassic sauropods from the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Patagonia, Argentina
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2588133
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2588133
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2588133
During their evolution, herbivores have developed various mechanisms to cope with dental wear. One such mechanism was an increase in the number of replacement teeth and in the rate of tooth replacement. However, this aspect has not been extensively studied in early sauropodomorphs, and the few existing studies have focused mainly on Neosauropoda. Here, we describe the dental replacement patterns of five non-neosauropod sauropods from the Lower Jurassic of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Patagonia. These include tooth-bearing bones of the early eusauropods Bagualia alba and Patagosaurus fariasi, jaw remains tentatively assigned to the non-eusauropod sauropod Amygdalodon patagonicus, and two specimens not yet formally named (MACN-CH 934 and MPEF-PV 12010). The results indicate that within the dental morphotypes found, Patagosaurus has teeth with thinner crowns of fine enamel, and without marked apicobasal grooves. On the other hand, Amygdalodon and MPEF-PV 12010 possess up to two replacement teeth for each functional tooth, whereas Bagualia, MACN-CH 934, and possibly Patagosaurus have up to three. Regarding replacement rate, Patagosaurus and specimen MACN-CH 934 show the highest values, which correlate with their distinct dental morphology. These differences in both replacement rates and dental morphology suggest the existence of diverse feeding ecologies among the studied taxa. Therefore, the diversity of dental morphotypes and their associated niche partitioning suggest that sauropod morphological diversity and disparity were greater during the Early Jurassic than previously thought.
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