A new hadrosaurid dentary from the latest Maastrichtian of the Pyrenees (north Spain) and the high diversity of the duck-billed dinosaurs of the Ibero-Armorican Realm at the very end of the Cretaceous |
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Authors: | Penélope Cruzado-Caballero José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca Rodrigo Gaete Violeta Riera Oriol Oms José Ignacio Canudo |
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Affiliation: | 1. Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spainpenelope@unizar.es;3. Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain;4. Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA), E-33328 Colunga, Spain;5. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, c/ Jesús Arias de Velasco s/n, E-33005 Oviedo, Spain;6. Museu de la Conca Dellà, C/ del museu, 4, E-25650 Isona, Spain;7. Departament de Geologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain |
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Abstract: | In the latest Maastrichtian, the European hadrosauroid fauna was more diverse than those of North America and Asia. The European record of hadrosaurid dentaries is an example of this diversity, and most of the sites with mandibular remains are located in the Ibero-Armorican Realm. Within the Iberian Peninsula, most of the remains are located in the Tremp Basin (South Central Pyrenees). Two of the three valid hadrosaurid taxa defined in this basin are from the Blasi sites (Arén, Huesca province): Arenysaurus ardevoli (Blasi-3) and Blasisaurus canudoi (Blasi-1). A new locality in Blasi (Blasi 3.4) has provided a new dentary from an indeterminate euhadrosaurid. This dentary presents some characters intermediate between Arenysaurus and Blasisaurus, some characters similar to Pararhabdodon isonensis (from the nearby province of Lleida), and some characters of its own. Nevertheless, due to its fragmentary character, without dentition or its edentulous anterior part, it cannot be determined above the level of Euhadrosauria. It thus represents a fourth Iberian euhadrosaurian taxon in the Ibero-Armorican Realm, different from Arenysaurus, Blasisaurus and Pararhabdodon, increasing the diversity of hadrosauroids in this realm at the very end of the Cretaceous. |
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Keywords: | Hadrosauridae Late Cretaceous dentary paleobiodiversity Iberian Peninsula |
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