Dominique DELSATE, Xabier PEREDA-SUBERBIOLA, Roland FELTEN & Gilles FELTEN (2018)
First thyreophoran dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) of Luxembourg.
Geologica Belgica 21 (1-2): 19-26Â
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An isolated dinosaur osteoderm from the Rumelange-Ottange (Cimalux, formerly Intermoselle) Quarry of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is described. The fossil was found in marly-calcareous deposits of the "Marnes sableuses dâAudun-le-Tiche", which are Middle Jurassic in age (Humphriesianum Zone, Lower Bajocian). The deposits correspond to an open sea environment with an abundant and diverse marine fauna, including invertebrates, actinopterygians, hybodonts, neoselachians, plough-nose chimaeras, and marine reptiles. The oval, low-keeled osteoderm has a roof-like appearance and is here identified as a thyreophoran dermal scute. It could belong to a basal thyreophoran or, more tentatively, to an early ankylosaur. The specimen was probably a remnant of a floating carcass that drifted over a distance from a land area. The dermal scute from the Ottange-Rumelange Quarry represents the second Jurassic dinosaur reported to date from Luxembourg, and the first one described from the Bajocian. Moreover, it is one of the few non-stegosaurian thyreophoran records of Middle Jurassic age.