Dinosaurios acorazados del Pirineo

Durante los días 7 a 12 de Junio se celebró en el Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle d’Aix-en-Provence de la ciudad francesa de Aix-en-Provence el 8th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, reunión en la que se presentó un trabajo sobre restos de dinosaurios anquilosaurios de los pirineos ilerdenses. En el trabajo se hace referencia a los yacimientos ilerdenses conocidos en los que se han encontrado restos atribuibles a estos dinosaurios acorazados, además de aportar una nueva localidad a dicho registro.

Resumen:

Escaso, F.; Ortega, F.; Pérez-García, A.; Sanz, JL. (2010): Ankylosaurian evidence from the Upper Cretaceous of South-Central Pyrenees (Lleida, Spain): a reappraisal. Abstract Volume 8th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists: 33.

"One of the most important dinosaur fossil areas from the European Upper Cretaceous is located in the South-Central Pyrenees of Spain. From this fossil record highlight both dinosaur eggs and footprints. Up to date, the represented dinosaur fauna is composed of sauropods, theropods, ornithopods and ankylosaurs. Among them, the remains of ankylosaurs are scarce. Nevertheless, Upper Cretaceous ankylosaurs from the Iberian Peninsula have been reported from several localities, such as Chera (Valencia), Laño (Condado de Treviño, Burgos), Quintanilla del Coco (Burgos) and, Fontllonga and Biscarri (Lleida). Two isolated teeth from these last localities and a new isolated humerus attributable to ankylosaur individuals are discussed here. These ankylosaur remains come from three different sites: Biscarri, Fontllonga-6 and Suterranya, all of them located at the Lleida Province. All these sites belong to the Upper Cretaceous part of the Tremp Formation. The right humerus is a slender bone and has a wide deltopectoral crest that is proximally placed. Both features are shared by nodosaurid ankylosaurs. The teeth are labiolingually compressed and the crowns have marked vertical ridges that are confluent with the preserved marginal denticles. Moreover, both teeth have a conspicuous basal cingulum that is more developed on one side. The characters combination shown by these two teeth are shared by nodosaurid ankylosaurs. In spite of the scarceness of the available information, the nodosaurid affinities of the undescribed humerus and the combination of features of the teeth confirm the presence of undeterminated nodosaurid ankylosaurs in South-Central Pyrenees."