Small-sized spinosaurids from the lower Barremian

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Jul 12, 2015 - Small-sized spinosaurids from the lower Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of. Spain. Antonio Alonso*, Pablo Navarro-Lorbés, Carmen ...
13th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists Opole, Poland, 8-12 July 2015 – Abstracts

Small-sized spinosaurids from the lower Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of Spain Antonio Alonso*, Pablo Navarro-Lorbés, Carmen Núñez-Lahuerta and José Ignacio Canudo Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, C/Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain, e-mail: [email protected] (*corresponding author)

Spinosaurids account for a large amount of theropod remains (mainly isolated teeth) at localities exposing Lower Cretaceous strata in the Iberian Peninsula. A good example is the La Cantalera-1 site, in the Blesa Formation (Teruel, Spain), where isolated theropod teeth are frequent. The aim of the present report is to compare spinosaurid teeth from La Cantalera-1 with the known record from Spain. Seventeen teeth have been studied by using qualitative and quantitative features, including multivariate statistical analysis. Two different morphotypes have been recognised at the La Cantalera-1 site: Baryonychinae indet. and Spinosaurinae? indet. Teeth of the former, with similar morphology, have been described from other Lower Cretaceous sites in Spain, stemming from baryonychines close to Baryonyx. Teeth tentatively attributed to Spinosaurinae? indet. (of spinosaurines close to Spinosaurus) could constitute new evidence of the occurrence of spinosaurines in the Lower Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula, the record of this group in the area being patchy. The La Cantalera-1 record, when compared to other Lower Cretaceous sites, reflects conditions of the depositional area, i.e., a marshy environment with periodic droughts resulting in a non-permanent body of water, which represents an ecosystem unable to sustain largesized organisms.

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