Search

Copyright of Spanish Journal of Palaeontology is the property of Socieadad Espanola de Paleontologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Turiasauria is a non-neosauropod eusauropod clade of dinosaurs known since 2006, when the description of Turiasaurus was published. This group, including Losillasaurus , was originally thought to have been restricted to the Late Jurassic of Spain. However, over the last decade, our knowledge of this group has improved with the discovery of new taxa such as Zby from the Portuguese Late Jurassic, Tendaguria from the Tanzanian Late Jurassic and Mierasaurus and Moabosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of the USA. Here, we describe a new specimen of Losillasaurus from Spain, which allows us to better understand the character variation in the cranial and postcranial skeleton. The review of some sauropod fauna of Madagascar, and inclusion of some specimens of Turiasauria, suggest that this clade might have arisen in the Middle Jurassic. According to our phylogenetic results, a specimen found in the early 19th century in Madagascar is shown to be the oldest and only member of Turiasauria represented in the Middle Jurassic thus far. This is named Narindasaurus thevenini gen. & sp. nov.. Turiasauria is thus known from the Middle Jurassic in Pangaea, diversified in the Late Jurassic in Gondwana and Laurasia, and dispersed during the Early Cretaceous to North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New reports of dinosaur tracksites in the Tuchengzi Formation in the newly established Yanqing Global Geopark, Beijing, China, support previous inferences that the track assemblages from this formation are saurischian-dominated. More specifically, the assemblages appear theropod-dominated, with the majority of well-preserved tracks conforming to the Grallator type (sensus lato), thus representing relatively small trackmakers. Such ichnofaunas supplement the skeletal record from this unit that lacks theropods thus far, proving a larger diversity of dinosaur faunas in that region. Sauropods are represented by medium to large sized and narrow and wide-gauge groups, respectively. The latter correspond with earlier discoveries of titanosauriform skeletons in the same unit. Previous records of ornithischian tracks cannot be positively confirmed. Purported occurrences are re-evaluated here, the trackways and imprints, except of a single possible specimen, re-assigned to theropods. Palecologically the Tuchengzi ichnofauna is characteristic of semi-arid fluvio-lacustrine inland basins with Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous deposits in northern China that all show assemblages with abundant theropod and sauropod tracks and minor components of ornithopod, pterosaur and bird tracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the sedimentological characteristics of dinosaur ichnites at three sites within the municipal area of El Castellar (in the Province of Teruel, Aragón, Spain): El Castellar (CT-1), El Pozo (CT-2), and Camino El Berzal (CT-3). These sites possess large concentrations of footprints made by quadrupedal (sauropod, stegosaurid and ornithopod) and bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Among the more than 800 documented footprints at CT-1 is a trail left by a large theropod, and at least one other made by a stegosaurid (the holotype ofDeltapodus ibericus). CT-3 contains some of the largest sauropod footprints ever found in the Iberian Peninsula. The three sites lie within the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, which was deposited over the Tithonian-Berriasian period in an environment under tidal influence. Tidal carbonates host the largest number of footprints. Different footprint shapes and degrees of preservation are apparent, even within a single layer, reflecting the characteristics of the original sediment in which the footprints were made. The grain size and water content of the original sediment, primarily the micritic mud derived from the pellets when it contains some water, appear to have been the most important factors in determining the quality of the preserved prints. The presence of algal mats appear to have been less important, because the mats detected inside the massive or pelletoidal micrite were broken and deformed, and would therefore not have invested the substrate with cohesion enough to favor footprint preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This work describes a new specimen of the sauropod Tastavinsaurus sanzi, the second of this species recovered. Found at the La Canaleta site (CT-19) at El Castellar (Teruel, Spain), this new specimen is partially articulated. The site lies at the base of the Forcall Formation (early Aptian in age), which is composed of clays and sand, suggesting the area to have been a very shallow, tidal, coastal environment before becoming deeper at the margin of the Maestrazgo Basin. The anatomical elements of T. sanzi recovered include 16 dorsal ribs, some remains of the pelvic girdle, a radius, and a complete hindlimb. The original diagnosis of T. sanzi is revised. The characters of this new specimen confirm it to be a taxon of Titanosauriformes, and allow its inclusion within the clade Laurasiformes, which currently has three taxa: Tastavinsaurus, Cedarosaurus and Venenosaurus. Laurasiformes might have its origin in the Late Jurassic of Laurasia and a radiation that occurred in the Early Cretaceous. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Up to now, more than 40 dinosaur sites have been found in the latest Jurassic – earliest Cretaceous sedimentary outcrops (Villar del Arzobispo Formation) of Riodeva (Iberian Range, Spain). Those already excavated, as well as other findings, provide a large and diverse number of sauropod remains, suggesting a great diversity for this group in the Iberian Peninsula during this time. Vertebrae and ischial remains from Riodevan site RD-13 are assigned to Turiasaurus riodevensis (a species described in RD-10, Barrihonda site), which is part of the Turiasauria clade. This is the first time that a taxon is attributed to Turiasaurus genus out of its type site. A Neosauropod caudal vertebra from the RD-11 site has been classified as Diplodocinae indet., supporting the previous attribution on an ilion also found in Riodeva (CPT-1074) referring to the Diplodocidae clade. New remains from the RD-28, RD-41 and RD-43 sites, of the same age, among which there are caudal vertebrae, are assigned to Macronaria. New sauropod footprints from the Villar del Arzobispo Formation complete the extraordinary sauropod record coming to light in the area. The inclusion of other sauropods from different contemporaneous exposures in Teruel within the Turiasauria clade adds new evidence of a great diversity of sauropods in Iberia during the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition. Turiasauria distribution contributes to the understanding of European and global palaeobiogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossils of a giant sauropod dinosaur, Turiasaurus riodevensis, have been recovered from terrestrial deposits of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary) of Riodeva (Teruel Province, Spain). Its humerus length (1790 millimeters) and estimated mass (40 to 48 metric tons) indicate that it may have been the most massive terrestrial animal in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the fossil represents a member of a hitherto unrecognized group of primitive European eusauropods that evolved in the Jurassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The limestone, sandstone and clays of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Kimmeridgian–Berriasian) crop out in the south of the Iberian Range (Spain), and from a palaeontological point of view, the formation is characterised by dozens of sites with dinosaur fossils. The most abundant are the sauropods and stegosaurs, while the ornithopods are scarce, and theropods (especially large-sized ones) are very rare. Described here are some fossils of large-sized theropods (a new tooth and a tridactyl trackway) found at two sites of this formation within the Peñagolosa sub-basin (Maestrazgo Basin) in Teruel province. The new tooth from Formiche Alto is attributed to a large indeterminate tetanuran, possibly a megalosaurid, and is closely related to other large fossil teeth from this formation in Riodeva and Galve (Teruel) and Alpuente (Valencia). In addition, a distinctive morphology of the large-sized tridactyl footprints in the trackway found at the El Castellar tracksite at the village of the same name, allows the establishment of a new ichnotaxon, Iberosauripus grandis ichnogen. et ichnosp. nov. It is easily differentiated from a number of previously named ichnotaxa and suggests the ichnological record of large theropods from the Upper Jurassic of Europe, North America and Asia can be divided into two distinct groups, whose trackmakers were probably members of Megalosauridae and Allosauridae. Keeping in mind that smaller and also different teeth related to allosaurids have been previously described, it is concluded that the dinosaur assemblages in this formation include at least two types of large-sized megatheropod tetanurans which, when fully grown, were responsible for the large-sized tridactyl footprints found in this unit. The predation pressure exerted by these theropods can be seen as a significant cause stimulating the gigantic sizes of some sauropods (like Turiasaurus and Losillasaurus) found in the same formation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]