Historia evolutiva de los titanosaurios del Cretácico Superior ibero-armoricano en el 1st Palaeontological Virtual Congress

Recientemente se ha presentado en el 1st Palaeontological Virtual Congress un póster sobre la historia evolutiva de los titanosaurios del contexto del Cretácico Superior ibero-armoricano. En este trabajo, titulado "Late Cretaceous titanosaurs of the Ibero-Armorican domain, a systematic overview and new data from Lo Hueco fossil site", presentamos también nuevas informaciones sobre los análisis filogenéticos que estamos realizando para estudiar los titanosaurios del Cretácico europeo, así como de los titanosaurios de Lo Hueco (Cuenca, España). 

Aquí va el pequeño resumen: 

The Campanian-Maastrichtian strata of the Ibero-Armorican domain are rich in titanosaur remains with four described genera: Lirainosaurus, Ampelosaurus, Atsinganosaurus, and Lohuecotitan. However, a higher diversity has been suggested for this domain during this period, followed by its decline in the early late Maastrichtian. The evolutionary history of the Late Cretaceous Ibero-Armorican titanosaurs is uncertain. Some taxa have been considered as members of Saltasauridae, however more recent studies are recovering the Ibero-Armorican forms as closely related to the Gondwanan clades Aeolosaurini, Rinconsauria and Lognkosauria. These new phylogenetic hypotheses are also suggesting the presence of possible dispersal events between Europe and Africa through the Afro-Arabian Plate, which should justify this relationship between African and South American taxa. Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain) represents a Campanian-Maastrichtian multitaxic bonebed, with several partial titanosaurian skeletons, mostly articulated or with low dispersion, and key for the phylogenetic study of the European titanosaurs. Preliminary studies suggested for the presence of at least two different taxa in this site. The titanosaurian specimens of Lo Hueco share several features with Lithostrotia. Although European forms have been placed within Saltasauridae, some specimens from Lo Hueco exhibit features traditionally considered as aeolosaurine synapomorphies, fact never reported in the Upper Cretaceous of Europe. Further incorporation of the complete set of European titanosaurs in revised morphological data matrices are still necessary to understand their phylogeny. Recent phylogenetic proposals show discrepancies in the consideration of Ibero-Armorican titanosaurs either as distantly related forms or as members of a single European taxon that excludes Lo Hueco representatives. 

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Más información:

• Referencia: Mocho P and Ortega F. (2018). Late Cretaceous titanosaurs of the Ibero-Armorican Domain, a systematic overview and new data from the Lo Hueco Fossil Site, pp. 145. In Crespo V, Manzanares E, Marquina-Blasco R, Suñer M, Herráiz JL, Gamonal A, Arnal FAM, Ferrón HG, Gascó F, Martínez-Pérez C (eds), Ist Palaeontological Virtual Congress. Book of abstracts. Palaeontology in the virtual era.