Deviation Actions
Description
Rinconsaurus, a titanosaur from Argentina.
This illustration is an altered version of this image steveoc86.deviantart.com/art/R…:
In this version, I changed the colour scheme to something more simple, less stripy, and more recently, I modified the proportions.
The original version was based on the skeletal reconstruction in the Rinconsaurus description paper. Recently I scaled in the photographed material and noticed that the skeletal isn't very accurate; it seems to be a modified version of Mark Hallett's early Rapetosaurus reconstruction. Unfortunately, not much has been described in detail at the time of making this, so the proportions shown here are far from certain.
Whilst there is currently no proper skeletal reconstruction available, the above factors in the photographed elements and the rest of the proportions are based on other titanosaur reconstructions. So even though it is not entirely rigorous, it is probably slightly closer to what Rinconsaurus would have been like. The neck length is the most uncertain part. I assumed around 14 cervicals; it could have been closer to 17 like in Rapetosaurus, in which case the neck could have been up to a third longer than shown here.
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Update 23/06/16: I have added evidence of osteoderms. They are not known yet in Rinconsaurus; however, osteoderms are known to be spread across the titanosaur family tree. That said, osteoderm fossils are somewhat rare, even in genera where they are known. Because of this, they are thought to be quite sparse on the body, unlike the densely populated armour on ankylosaurs. However, the total number of osteoderms any titanosaur had, and their exact position on the body, are currently unknown.
There seem to be two main types of osteoderms, with the possibility of a third type. 'Bulb and Root' osteoderms are known from many titanosaurs, and 'Scutes' are known from saltasaurines. A few titanosaurs from Argentina, like Mendozasaurus, seem to have something slightly different; the osteoderms shown here are based loosely on those in Mendozasaurus.
Update July 2020
This image has been updated on the commons, but I haven't gotten around to updating it here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rin…
Basically, the material is said to be from 2 adults and one juvenile. Still, the description doesn't specify which material belongs to which, so there is some uncertainty regarding how to scale the illustrated material.
The largest cervical is listed as 495 mm. However, using the scale bar, it comes out at 395 mm. In the 2016 version, I used 395 mm because, at the time, I thought it looked more in proportion with the other material, and shorter necked titanosaur reconstructions influenced me. However, other titanosaurs show proportionally large cervical vertebrae (for example, Overosaurus www.deviantart.com/javifel/art…). Therefore, the listed size of 495 mm makes the reconstruction superficially look more like Overosaurus.
Because of this, the neck has been scaled up somewhat in the 2020 version. However, even though the neck is longer, this still assumes 14 cervical vertebrae. The 2020 version also has a slightly steeper body posture, more in line with current reconstructions.
