Caieiria

Caieiria is known only from a set of ten tail vertebrae, which were originally thought to belong to another dinosaur called Trigonosaurus.1

Its species name 'allocaudata' means 'strange tail', because the tail bones have unusual shapes.1

The fossils were dug up in the 1950s by paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price, but the dinosaur was not named until 2022.1

Caieiria lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous.2

It shared its home with other dinosaurs like Baurutitan and the bird-like Ypupiara, as well as crocodile relatives.1

Scientists think Caieiria belongs to a group of titanosaurs called Aeolosaurini, which were common in South America.1