Ben Creisler
New papers (will be open access when in final form):
I. Narváez, C. A. Brochu, F. Escaso, A. Pérez-García & F. Ortega (2017)
Analysis and phylogenetic status of the eusuchian fragmentary material from Western Europe assigned to Allodaposuchus precedens.
Journal of Iberian Geology (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1007/s41513-017-0025-3
Purpose
During the last two decades, several specimens of eusuchian crocodyliforms have been described from the Campanian and Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) record of Europe. Most of them are now included in the recently described clade Allodaposuchidae. This clade is recognized as the sister group of the crown Crocodylia. The type species of Allodaposuchidae is Allodaposuchus precedens, described on material from the lower Maastrichtian of Vălioara (Hunedoara, Romania). The group also comprises several species from Spain and France. Some specimens from Spain, southern France and Romania were assigned to Allodaposuchus precedens by different authors. Thus, fragmentary cranial specimens from the upper Campanian of Armuña (Segovia, Spain) and the lower Maastrichtian of Bellevue (Aude, France) and Vilamitjana (Lleida, Spain), were attributed to Allodaposuchus precedens helping to propose a new diagnosis of this species. In fact, the assignment of specimens from Western Europe to Allodaposuchus precedens has been questioned in recent publications.
Methods
The present paper analyses the fragmentary material from Spain and France previously assigned to Allodaposuchus precedens.
Results
The material analysed, which previously had been attributed to Allodaposuchus precedens, has been reassigned here to Allodaposuchidae indet.
Conclusions
This study confirms that the species Allodaposuchus precedens was clearly restricted to Eastern Europe, clarifying the palaeobiogeography of the clade Allodaposuchidae during Campanian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous).
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M. Martín Jiménez, B. Sánchez-Chillón, Fernando Escaso, Pedro Mocho, Iván Narváez, Francisco Ortega & Adán Pérez-García (2017)
Systematic study of the historical material of Upper Cretaceous reptiles from the Tremp Basin (Catalonia, Spain) housed at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Madrid)
Journal of Iberian Geology (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1007/s41513-017-0018-2
Purpose
The development of the studies on Mesozoic reptiles of the Spanish record occurred much later than in several European countries such as United Kingdom, France or Germany. Thus, very scarce and punctual findings were performed in the second half of the 19th century, followed by the work of José Royo y Gómez, which was stopped by the Spanish Civil War. The professional surveys and studies carried out in the 1950s in the Upper Cretaceous levels of the Tremp Basin (Lleida, Catalonia, Spain) can be considered as the origins of the development of this discipline in Spain. The works in the Tremp Basin were performed through the collaboration of national and foreign researchers. The Spanish palaeontologist Emiliano Aguirre and the French Albert Félix de Lapparent published some preliminary notes on the vertebrate fauna identified there. However, no detailed systematic study of these historical remains was ever done.
Methods
The unpublished historical remains from the Tremp Basin collected by Aguirre and Lapparent, and preserved in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Madrid) collections, are studied here.
Results
The analysis of unpublished historical documentation housed in the archive of that institution allows us to improve the knowledge about the history of these findings, as well as to recognize the precise sites from which each of these fossils come.
Conclusion
The systematic study of these specimens, corresponding to turtles, crocodiles and dinosaurs, is performed here. They are attributed to Bothremydidae indet., cf. Pan-Cryptodira, cf. Allodaposuchidae, Titanosauria indet., Nodosauridae indet. and Ornithopoda indet.