New evidence of shared dinosaur across Upper Jurassic Proto-North Atlantic: Stegosaurus from Portugal

More than one century after its original description by Marsh in 1877, we report in this paper the first uncontroversial evidence of a member of the genus Stegosaurus out of North America. The specimen consists of a partial skeleton from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal, herein considered as Stegosaurus cf. ungulatus. The pres- ence of this plated dinosaur in the upper Kimmeridgian- lower Tithonian Portuguese record and synchronic levels of the Morrison Formation of North America reinforces previous hypothesis of a close relationship between these two areas during the Late Jurassic. This relationship is also supported by geotectonic evidences indicating high proba- bility of an episodic corridor between the Newfoundland and Iberian landmasses. Together, Portuguese Stegosaurus dis- covery and geotectonic inferences could provide a scenario with episodical faunal contact among North Atlantic land- masses during the uppermost Kimmeridgian-lowermost Tithonian (ca. 148-153 Ma ago).