A giant in the Iberian Peninsula: Experts have discovered a dinosaur in Spain that is about 20 meters long and weighs 15 tons. The long-necked herbivore lived about 75 million years ago, the researchers from Spain and Portugal explained.
They describe the titanosaur in the journal “Nature Communications Biology”. The previously unknown species promises important information about dinosaurs shortly before their extinction some 66 million years ago, the researchers write. The presence of the species in Spain shows that, contrary to what was previously thought, “Europe was a melting pot of native and immigrant sauropods in the Late Cretaceous.”
Relatives in Asia and North America
“Until now, it was assumed that almost all European titanosaurs belonged to the indigenous genus Lirainosaurus, which evolved in isolation in Europe from the end of the Cretaceous until its extinction,” explains co-author Francisco Ortega. The new find shows that titanosaurs related to Asian and North American dinosaurs migrated to Europe at the end of the Cretaceous.
The fossils were discovered at the archaeological site of Lo Hueco, about 200 kilometers southeast of Madrid. It is one of the most complete sauropod skeletons ever found in Europe, Ortega stressed during the presentation to journalists.
The new dinosaur has been named “Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra”. The first name is composed of the place where it was found, the province of Cuenca, and ‘Saura’, which refers to both the Latin word for ‘lizard’ and the painter Antonio Saura. “Pintiquiniestra” is the name of the figure of a giant queen from the book “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes.
Since its discovery during excavations for the Spanish high-speed rail line in 2007, Lo Hueco has been considered one of the most important Upper Cretaceous paleontological sites in Europe. So far, more than 12,000 fossils have been unearthed there – from sauropods to turtles and crocodiles.
Another copy buried
The site is like a textbook on the sauropods of the European Upper Cretaceous, Ortega said. Paleontologists are eager to use the remains to learn more about the living conditions back then, among other things. There is still much to discover, Ortega said. “We know there are remains of at least one other specimen in Cuenca.”
Source: Krone
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