Iguanodon and Mantellisaurus from Spain

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


 A new online paper:

José M. Gasulla, Fernando Escaso, Francisco Ortega & José L. Sanz (2013)
New hadrosauriform cranial remains from the Arcillas de Morella
Formation (lower Aptian) of Morella, Spain.
Cretaceous Research 47: 19–24
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2013.10.004
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667113001614


This article describes isolated skull bones of at least three
ornithopod dinosaurs from the lower Aptian “Arcillas de Morella”
Formation at Morella (Castellón, Spain). These bones correspond to two
right maxillae and a partial left quadrate. Analysis of the two
maxillae belonging to the large-sized European ornithopod Iguanodon
bernissartensis provided new information about this taxon. Hence, for
the first time in Iguanodon, a rostrodorsal process and a straight
shape, both in the maxilla and in the tooth row, are described when
viewed dorsally and occlusally, respectively. Regarding the left
quadrate, in the lateral and medial views, the presence of a bowed
quadrate shaft related the left quadrate to the monospecific genus of
large-sized ornithopod from the European Early Cretaceous
Mantellisaurus. Given the scarce information about the left quadrate,
we tentatively refer this bone to cf. Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis.
Furthermore, new evidence of these Hadrosauriformes in the Iberian
Peninsula corroborates the great similarity between the
Barremian–early Aptian dinosaur faunas in British, Belgium and Iberian
records.