Limaysaurus

Limaysaurus ("Limay lizard") is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaurs which lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 99.7 to 94 million years ago, in the Cenomanian, in what is now South America (northwestern Patagonia). It is represented by a single species, L. tessonei.

==Discovery== alt=A Limaysaurus skeleton on display at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece|left|thumb|Skeleton viewed from above, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Limaysaurus includes a single type species, Limaysaurus tessonei, which was originally referred to the genus Rebbachisaurus as Rebbachisaurus tessonei, an African species, by Jorge Calvo and Leonardo Salgado in 1995. However, a generic separation was proposed by Salgado, Alberto Garrido, Sergio Cocca and Juan Cocca, and the genus Limaysaurus was named in 2004. The generic name is derived from Río Limay which borders the region and from the specific name, tessonei, in honor of Lieto Tessone, who found the first and most complete holotype. Their discovery shed some light on the distribution of Gondwanan dinosaurs in the mid-Cretaceous period. Several specimens of Limaysaurus are known, one of which (the holotype) is 80% complete, being one of the most complete Cretaceous sauropods ever found in South America.