Your Friends The Titanosaurs: Ibirania parva

It's been more than half a year since our last friendly titanosaur (Abditosaurus kuehnei), but September has brought us a new saltasaur. To be precise, our guest is Ibirania parva, hailing from the late Late Cretaceous of the Bauru Basin of southern Brazil. There is always room here for a sauropod that could have been transported in a standard shipping container,* so let's begin.

*Or, heck with that, in an Amazon van—curl the neck and/or tail and 5.7 meters/19 feet of sauropod can be yours with free shipping for Amazon Prime members. Or get a horse trailer and make allowance for your curious sauropod to poke its head out the sides.

Mbiresaurus and Tuebingosaurus

Things have picked up since late June. In the past couple of weeks, two new "prosauropods" have been published that cover both ends of the prosauropod spectrum. One, Mbiresaurus raathi, represents the early part of sauropodomorph evolution, while the other, Tuebingosaurus maierfritzorum, is close to the transition from clear-cut "prosauropods" to clear-cut "sauropods". Long-time readers will be familiar with the author's inexplicable fondness for prosauropods, so let's invite them in.