Talenkauen santacrucensis represents one of the most complete South American ornithopods yet discovered. This dinosaur comes from the Mata Amarilla Formation (Turonian) of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The aim of this contribution is to present a detailed description of Talenkauen santacrucensis. Features of the cervical series of Talenkauen, which are shared with other elasmarians, indicate that these dinosaurs have a proportionally longer neck than other ornithopods. These traits were convergently acquired by several saurischian clades. Additionally, some features, including an ornamented labial surface of the mandibular teeth and a sigmoidal greater trochanter of femur, are traits shared by most elasmarians, and may prove to be synapomorphies of this clade. A phylogenetic analysis recovers most Cretaceous Gondwanan ornithopods in the clade Elasmaria. This analysis indicates that Elasmaria was distributed more widely geographically and temporally than previously thought.

Talenkauen santacrucensis代表了迄今发现的最完整的南美鸟脚类动物之一。该恐龙来自阿根廷圣克鲁斯省的Mata Amarilla组（突厥人）。该贡献的目的是对Talenkauen santacrucensis进行详细描述。Talenkauen子宫颈系列的功能与其他弹性体共有的动物，表明这些恐龙的颈部比其他鸟脚类动物的脖子更长。这些特征被几个萨里式进化论融合在一起。另外，一些特征，包括下颌牙齿的装饰唇面和股骨的乙状大转子，是大多数弹性体共有的特征，可能被证明是该进化枝的同形。系统发育分析可发现Elasmaria进化枝中大多数白垩纪的冈瓦南鸟脚类动物。该分析表明，大肠埃希菌在地理和时间上的分布比以前认为的要广泛。