Ornitópodos de Lo Hueco

En el 7th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists desarrolladas en Berlín en Julio de 2009 se ha presentado un trabajo que analiza restos cranales del ornithopodo Rhabdodon en el yacimiento de "Lo Hueco" (Cretácico Superior. Fuentes, Cuenca), más concretamente una mandíbula que conserva parte de la dentición.

Resumen:

Escaso, F.; Ortega, F.; Sanz, JL.; Pérez-García, A.; Gasulla, JM (2009): New material of Rhabdodon from the upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian of “Lo Hueco” (Cuenca, Spain) Abstract Volume 7th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists (Daniela Schwarz-Wings, Oliver Wings, Franziska Sattler Eds.), 26

"The Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in southern Europe, and especially in the Iberian Peninsula, are relatively poorly known. The recently found fossil-site of “Lo Hueco” at the locality of Fuentes near Cuenca (Spain) had provided an abundant assemblage of well-preserved fossils representing most of the macrovertebrate groups described in the Campanian-Maastrichtian of Western Europe. One of these groups well represented in “Lo Hueco” are the ornithopod dinosaurs, and especially remains of the ornithopod Rhabdodon. Cranial remains of the genus Rhabdodon from the Iberian Peninsula are mainly teeth and incomplete and fragmentary skull bones from several localities, such as Armuña (Segovia), Chera (Valencia), Figuerola de Meià (Lleida) and Laño (Condado de Treviño, Burgos). An almost complete right dentary and an isolated maxillary tooth from Lo Hueco” can be referred to the species Rhabdodon priscus. Previously, some remains had been attributed to this species in Spanish localities, such are the Tremp Basin (Lleida Province) and Cubilla (Soria Province), but these remains are too fragmentary to allow an accurate identification. A large oblique shelf between the alveolar row and the lateral wall of the dentary, parallel dorsal and ventral dentary margins, dentary teeth with a prominent primary ridge shifted slightly distally from the midline of the tooth and enamel thicker on the lingual side of the dentary teeth are diagnostic characters of Rhabdodon priscus shared by the “Lo Hueco” lower jaw. Furthermore, the right dentary shares with R. priscus the presence of a coronoid process that slopes backward, a condition absent in R. septimanicus. Moreover, the isolated maxillary tooth from “Lo Hueco” shares with R. priscus the presence of parallel ridges without any prominent primary ridge. The accurate identification of Rhabdodon priscus in the Iberian domain increases the range of distribution of the species to the westernmost end of the South European archipelago, at least, at beginning of the Maastrichtian."

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En la imagen: momento de la excavación en "Lo Hueco"