NEW INSIGHTS ON ANCIENT LIFE
New cranial remains of Ornithocheiroidea (Pterosauria) from the Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of the Iberian Peninsula Nuevos restos craneales de Ornithocheiroidea (Pterosauria) del Barremiense (Cretácico Inferior) de la Península Ibérica José Antonio Ulloa-Rivas1* & José Ignacio Canudo1 1
Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Dpto. Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Calle Pedro Cerbuna 12 50009 Zaragoza (Spain). *Corresponding author:
[email protected]
Keywords: Salt gland, bony superficial ornamentation, Blesa Formation. Palabras clave: Glándula de la sal, ornamentación superficial ósea, Formación Blesa. Introduction Pterosaurian direct fossil record from the Lower Cretaceous is scarce and fragmentary in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the known specimens consist of isolated teeth and fragmentary postcranial bones. Only a few specimens are more complete. An important part of the published fossils are too fragmentary to be classified with accuracy, so they are generally identified as Pterosauria indet. or Pterodactyloidea indet. (Barrett et al. 2008; Fuentes-Vidarte & Meijide-Calvo 2010; Holgado et al. 2011; PeredaSuberbiola et al. 2012; Vullo et al. 2012). In recent years, two new taxa have been named from the two most complete specimens discovered in the Iberian Peninsula. The first taxon, 116
Prejanopterus curvirostra, has been described from teeth, cranial and postcranial bones. This specimen was discovered in the Aptian Fuente Amarga Fossil Site in Préjano (La Rioja) (Fuentes-Vidarte & Meijide-Calvo 2010; Pereda-Suberbiola et al. 2012). The second specimen has been named Europejara olcadesorum. It has been described from cranial remains recovered in the Upper Barremian of Las Hoyas paleontological site in Cuenca (Vullo et al. 2012). The aim of this paper is to describe the fossil specimen MPZ-2014/1 which consists of pterosaurian cranial remains that were discovered by the amateur paleontologist Javier Andreu in Obón (Teruel, Spain) at the end of the eighties. Currently, this specimen is deposited in the
XII ENCUENTRO DE JÓVENES INVESTIGADORES EN PALENTOLOGÍA (BOLTAÑA, 2014) Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza. The importance of MPZ-2014/1 is that it is the second discovery of cranial remains of Ornithocheiroidea from the Lower Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula. Geographic and geological settings MPZ-2014/1 was discovered in the Quiñones paleontological site, which is about 1 km West of Obón village (Teruel, Spain). The Site belongs to the upper part of the Blesa Formation which consists of a bioclastic limestone level that was deposited in a littoral lacustrine environment during the Early Barremian (Soria de Miguel 1997).
ornithocheirid such as Coloborhynchus and Anhanguera, and separates MPZ2014/1 from other ornithocheirids that do not have anterior palate elevation such as Ornithocheirus. MPZ-2014/1 also displays four autapomorphies which have not been described in other Ornithocheiridae, highlighting the premaxillar crest superficial ornamentation and the two dorsal premaxillar holes. These holes have never been described in other pterosaurs and they might be the bony holes associated to the secretion pores of a possible salt gland. If this hypothesis is true, these holes will be the first evidence of this gland type in Pterosauria (Ulloa-Rivas 2013). Conclusions
Results and discussion MPZ-2014/1 is the anterior end of a pterosaurian skull (Fig. 1). This specimen consists of the anterior end of the premaxillar and maxillar bones, fragments of the 4th, 5th and 7th right teeth and one fragment of the 8th left tooth. It is 198 mm long approximately. MPZ2014/1 is well preserved, because its three-dimensional shape is nearly intact although it is slightly flattened on both sides. MPZ-2014/1 has a unique combination of eleven synapomorphies, highlighting the anterior palate elevation. This character relates MPZ-2014/1 with
MPZ-2014/1 is the second ornithocheirid specimen (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) with bony cranial remains discovered in the Iberian Peninsula (Company 2007). This specimen is characterized by a unique combination of characters, which means that MPZ2014/1 is possibly a member of a new pterosaurian genus and species (UlloaRivas 2013). REFERENCES Barrett, P.M., Butler, R.J., Edwards, N.P. & Milner, A.R. (2008). Pterosaur distribution
117
NEW INSIGHTS ON ANCIENT LIFE in time and space: an atlas. Zitteliana B, 28, 61-107. Company, J. (2007). First record of toothed pterosaurs (Pterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiridae) from Albian deposits of the Iberian Peninsula (Utrillas Formation, Southeastern Iberian Range, Spain). In: Flugsaurier. The Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting. Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology, Munich, 11-12. Fuentes Vidarte, C. & Meijide Calvo, M. (2010). Un nuevo pterosaurio (Pterodactyloidea) en el Cretácico Inferior de La Rioja (España). Boletín Geológico y Minero, 121, 311-328. Holgado, B., Martínez-Pérez, C. & RuizOmeñaca, J.I. (2011). Revisión actualizada del registro fósil de Pterosauria en la Península Ibérica. In: Viajando a Mundos Pretéritos (A. Pérez-García, F. Gascó, J.M. Gasulla, & F. Escaso, Eds). Ayuntamiento de Morella, Morella, Castellón, 183-194. Pereda-Suberbiola,
118
X.,
Knoll,
F.,
Ruiz-
Omeñaca, J.I., Company, J. & Torcida Fernández-Baldor, F. (2012). Reassessment of Prejanopterus curvirostris, a basal pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Spain. Acta Geologica Sinica, 86, 13891401. Soria de Miguel, A.R. (1997). La sedimentación en las cuencas marginales del surco ibérico durante el Cretácico Inferior y su control estructural. Tesis Doctoral, Univ. de Zaragoza, 382 pp. Ulloa-Rivas, J.A. (2013). Nueva especie de Ornithocheiroidea (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) del Barremiense (Cretácico Inferior) de la Península Ibérica. Trabajo de fin de Master, Univ. de Zaragoza, 84 pp. Vullo, R., Marugán-Lobón, J., Kellner, A. W. A., Buscalioni, A.D., Gómez, B., de la Fuente, M. & Moratalla, J.J. (2012). A new crested pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Spain: The first european tapejarid (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchoidea). PlosOne, 7, 112.
XII ENCUENTRO DE JÓVENES INVESTIGADORES EN PALENTOLOGÍA (BOLTAÑA, 2014)
Figure 1. Photograph of MPZ-2014/1 in left lateral view. 5rt, 5th right tooth; 8lt, 8th left tooth; m, maxilla, pm, premaxilla. Scale bar: 50 mm.
119
