Qunkasaura

Qunkasaura is a genus of saltasauroid titanosaur dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) Lo Hueco site of the Villalba de la Sierra Formation of Spain.

It is part of a bonebed discovered in 2007, which includes the associated skeletons of multiple titanosaur taxa, as well as other dinosaurs, eusuchians, and many other animals.

The generic name, Qunkasaura, combines the name of Qunca or Kunka, a Spanish city that gave rise to the village of Fuentes in Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, where the Lo Hueco site is located, with the Greek word saura, meaning "lizard"; it also refers to Antonio Saura, a twentieth-century painter from Cuenca.

[1] In their phylogenetic analysis, Mocho et al. recovered Qunkasaura as the sister taxon to Abditosaurus within the saltasaurid subfamily Opisthocoelicaudiinae.

A cladogram adapted from their analysis is shown below:[1] Rapetosaurus Overosaurus Lirainosaurinae Isisaurus Saltasaurinae Alamosaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Abditosaurus Qunkasaura

Excavation of the dorsal and caudal vertebrae and pelvis of Qunkasaura