Paleontologists contain unearthed the skeletal stays from a previously unknown species of lithostrotian titanosaur on the fossil space of Lo Hueco, Cuenca, Spain.
An artist’s reconstruction of Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra. List credit ranking: José Antonio Peñas Artero.
Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra lived in Europe round 75 million years within the past at some level of the Cretaceous duration.
The previous creature modified into a member of Saltasauridae, a superfamily of titanosaurian dinosaurs at some level of the clade Lithostrotia.
“Titanosauria modified into a a hit community of sauropod dinosaurs that experienced an well-known match of diversification within the Early Cretaceous, with the institution of several certain lineages including Lithostrotia,” acknowledged College of Lisbon’s Dr. Pedro Mocho and his colleagues.
“Lithostrotians dominated the Late Cretaceous sauropod fauna and were represented by two main groups, the saltasauroids, and colossosaurs, including from diminutive forms to the ideal identified land animals.”
“They survived until the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, when they became extinct as all other non-avian dinosaurs.”
The paleontologists uncovered an articulated and partially associated skeleton of Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra on the Lo Hueco space of the Villalba de la Sierra Formation in Cuenca, Spain.
“Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra stands out for being one amongst potentially the most total sauropod skeletons found in Europe, including cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, piece of the pelvic girdle and elements of the limbs,” they acknowledged.
“Their lively morphology, especially within the tail vertebrae, presents contemporary insights into the non-avian dinosaurs of the Iberian Peninsula, a historically poorly understood community.”
The invention shows, for the principle time, the presence of at least two certain saltasauroid lineages within the Iberian catch 22 situation.
“One of those groups, called Lirainosaurinae, is pretty effectively identified within the Iberian catch 22 situation and is characterised by diminutive and medium-sized species, which evolved in an island ecosystem,” Dr. Mocho acknowledged.
“In other phrases, Europe modified into an mountainous archipelago made up of several islands at some level of the Late Cretaceous.”
“Nonetheless, Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra belongs to one other community of sauropods, represented within the Iberian Peninsula by medium-gigantic species round 73 million years within the past.”
“This means to us that this lineage arrived within the Iberian Peninsula critical later than other groups of dinosaurs.”
“We name Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra as a advisor of the opisthocoelicaudine saltasaurids, a community novel within the northern hemisphere (Laurasia),” the researchers acknowledged.
“On the opposite hand, most Late Cretaceous sauropods from southwestern Europe, including Lohuecotitan pandafilandi, previously described from Lo Hueco, belong to Lirainosaurinae, a community of sauropods apparently unparalleled to the European continent.”
“Our come all the way thru suggests that Lo Hueco is the entirely catch 22 situation where the coexistence of both groups is identified and proposes a contemporary community of titanosaurs called Lohuecosauria, which accommodates representatives of both lineages.”
“Lohuecosaurs can contain originated on the southern continents (Gondwana) earlier than dispersing globally.”
The findings seem within the journal Communications Biology.
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P. Mocho et al. 2024. A Spanish saltasauroid titanosaur shows Europe as a melting pot of endemic and immigrant sauropods within the Late Cretaceous. Commun Biol 7, 1016; doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-06653-0
