A sauropod foot from the Early Cretaceous of Western Siberia, Russia
Alexander O. Averianov, Alexei V. Voronkevich, Evgeny N. Maschenko, Sergei V. Leshchinsky, and Alexei V. Fayngertz
We describe a reasonably complete sauropod foot from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Ilek Formation at the Shestakovo locality inWestern Siberia, Russia. It shows some primitive characters, such as slender metatarsals, a relatively long second pedal ungual, and three claws. In the likely presence of the laterodistal process on the first metatarsal the Shestakovo sauropod is similar with diplodocoids, but its more elongated and gracile first metatarsal resembles brachiosaurids (Brachiosaurus, Pleurocoelus, and Cedarosaurus), titanosaurids (Laplatasaurus), and Euhelopus. Pleurocoelus-like isolated teeth from the Shestakovo assemblage may support the brachiosaurid affinities of the Shestakovo sauropod, but a strongly procoelous mid-caudal vertebra from another locality in the same formation establishes the presence of a titanosaurid in the fauna. The foot described is referred here to as Titanosauriformes gen.et sp.indet.
Key words: Sauropoda, Titanosauriformes, postcranial skeleton, Cretaceous, Siberia, Russia.
Alexander O. Averianov [sasha@AA1923.spb.edu], Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia; Alexei V. Voronkevich [voron@ggf.tsu.ru], Sergei V. Leshchinskiy [sl@ggf.tsu.ru], and Alexei V. Fayngertz [alex@ggf.tsu.ru], Tomsk State University, Pr. Lenina 36, Tomsk 634050, Russia; Evgeny N. Maschenko [evmash@paleo.ru], Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ul. 123, Moscow 117647, Russia.
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