Saltasaurids belong to the titanosaur branch of sauropods, generally smaller-bodied than their Jurassic predecessors but no less successful, spreading widely across the Late Cretaceous southern continents. What sets the family apart is armor: several saltasaurids preserve small bony osteoderms embedded directly in the skin, a genuinely unusual trait among sauropods, whose main defense was almost always their sheer bulk rather than dedicated armor plating.
Saltasaurus, the genus that names the family, was described from Argentina and remains the best-documented member, providing much of the direct fossil evidence for sauropod skin armor. The family's relatively compact body size compared to earlier giant sauropods reflects a broader trend among Late Cretaceous titanosaurs toward smaller, more varied body plans.