Una tibia de dinosaurio velocirraptorino de Lo Hueco en el XVIII Annual Meeting de la EAVP

Durante los días 5 al 9 de Julio de 2021 se celebró en formato online el XVIII Annual Meeting de la European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists (EAVP), con sede en Benevento (Italia). En esta reunión se presentó un trabajo sobre dinosaurios terópodos del Cretácico Superior del yacimiento de Lo Hueco (Cuenca, España) en el que han participado investigadores del Instituto Dom Luiz (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa), el Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED y el Museo Carmen Funes (Neuquén, Argentina). El resumen es el siguiente:

Theropod diversity from the Upper Cretaceous site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Central Spain) is not yet well established. To date, these dinosaurs are represented by isolated remains being preliminarily attributed to abelisaurids and to different maniraptoran clades identified based on teeth. Here an isolated partial left tibia articulated with the proximal tarsals is described and its taxonomic affinities are discussed. The tibia is relatively robust with almost straight medial and lateral margins. Distally, the proximal tarsals are fused together. They are firmly articulated with the tibia, but the suture is still visible. The proximal area of attachment for the fibula is a shallow posterolateral concavity delimited by a sharp lateral fibular crest and a less pronounced parallel ridge on the posterior face of the tibia. The fibula has a strongly twist to articulate on the anterior face of the tibia distally. This specimen exhibits several maniraptoran synapomorphies such as the plate-like and high ascending process of the astragalus and the broadly rectangular distal end of the tibia. Additionally, the combination of features showed by these elements is compatible with those of velociraptorine dromaeosaurids and confirms the presence of this clade previously identified in Lo Hueco based on isolated teeth. Several non-dental elements from the European Upper Cretaceous have been tentatively assigned to velociraptorines, but most of them show ambiguous combination of features and are currently interpreted as indeterminate dromaeosaurids. Therefore, the tibia from Lo Hueco would confirm the presence of velociraptorines in the Late Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Malafaia E., Escaso F, Coria RA., Ortega F., 2021. A velociraptorine tibia from Lo Hueco (Upper Cretaceous, Central Spain). In: Belvedere M., Díez Díaz V., Mecozzi B., Sardella R (eds.). Abstract book of the XVIII annual conference of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, online, 5th- 9th July 2021. Palaeovertebrata, 44, p.111.