Researchers at the Teruel-Dinopolis Paleontological Joint Foundation/Aragonese Museum of Paleontology, Spain, have released the description of a new upper Jurassic dinosaur based on fossil remains found in Spain.
In their paper, “The largest ornithopod (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Upper Jurassic of Europe sheds light on the evolutionary history of basal ankylopollexians,” published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Societyresearchers have detailed the identification of a giant ornithopod Ankylopollexia they named Oblitosaurus bunnueli.
Ankylopollexia is a different group of ornithopod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous (161.5 million to 66 million years ago) found in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The relationships between these diverse findings and the shared origin of the species are poorly understood.
A new ornithopod genus and species, named Oblitosaurus bunnueli, is described based on fossil remains from the Upper Jurassic of Spain (161.5 million to 145 million years ago). The age of the find makes it likely an early form of Ankylopollexia.
Based on several comparable measurements, Oblitosaurus bunnueli probably measured about 6–7 m in length, making it the largest ornithopod described from the Upper Jurassic of Europe and one of the largest worldwide.
The size estimates may solve a mystery around the footprints found In the same South Iberian basin of a large ornithopod with tracks up to 30 cm in size. Ornithopod tracks between 25 and 33 cm have been discovered in other Upper Jurassic locations in Spain and Portugal but would require larger ornithopods than those described in those regions. Estimated footprints made by Oblitosaurus bunnueli are between 29 and 31 cm long, making it an excellent candidate to solve the mystery of many sites.
Extremely large tracks assigned to ornithopods have been found in the Upper Jurassic of Portugal at approximately 70 cm and in Yemen at over 50 cm, suggesting that some large ornithopods have yet to be discovered.
The geological setting of the fossil discovery is in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, which is part of the Upper Jurassic of the South-Iberian Basin. Large herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs, including giant sauropods, stegosaurus, and theropods, dominated the region’s terrestrial ecosystem during the Late Jurassic. The Barrihonda-El Humero fossil site within the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, where the current discovery was made, has also yielded remains of sauropods, stegosaurs, theropods, fish, and turtles.
Fossils of Oblitosaurus bunnueli include a tooth, a digit, and a nearly complete left hindlimb. The tooth and digit were collected in 2005, while the semi-articulated hindlimb was found 12 m away and excavated in 2009. These fossils are considered to belong to the same individual due to the proximity of the remains in the area, and the size and features of the pieces are similar. The studied fossils now reside in the Museo Aragonés de Paleontología in Teruel, Spain.
Fun fact
The new dinosaur genus, Oblitosaurus bunnueli, is named after the famous Spanish film director Luis Buñuel, known for his surreal and groundbreaking films. The name reflects the uniqueness and importance of this discovery in the province of Teruel, where the filmmaker was born and where the fossils were found and now live.
Oblitosaurus means “forgotten lizard,” an apt name for any newly discovered dinosaur and an homage to one of Buñuel’s most famous films, “Los Olvidados,” Spanish for “The Forgotten Ones.” American film connoisseurs may be more familiar with the English title “The Young and the Damned,” which would also make for an excellent dinosaur name, even perhaps for one that lived closer to the KT extinction event.
More information:
Sergio Sánchez-Fenollosa et al, The largest ornithopod (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Upper Jurassic of Europe sheds light on the evolutionary history of basal ankylopollexians, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2023). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad076
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Citation: Discovery of new ornithopod solves mystery of unidentified large dinosaur tracks (2023, July 24) retrieved on July 24, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-07-discovery-ornithopod-mystery-unidentified-large.html
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