Friday, December 18th, 2015. In Spain, it has been found a new species of Ornitopod Dinosaur that habited the Iberian Peninsula just over 125 million years ago, with an estimated length of six meters, a height of about 2.5 meters and two tons of weight.
The discovery was made in a clay quarry -from which material is extracted to make tiles and ceramics in Morella (Castellón) – by a team of paleontologists. It would be an herbivore exemplary that lived in the time of the period of Lower Cretaceous and would have been coastal or delta, with lush vegetation and tropical climate. It has been called Morelladon Beltrani, in tribute to Vicente Beltran, owner of the mine where it was found.
The dinosaur is a medium sized Ornitopod that would be a new species closely related to the popular Iguanodon; one of the first dinosaurs that were discovered back in the nineteenth century. But this is a remarkable peculiarity, something like a deployed candle along the spine that just might helped to regulate the temperature of the animal or as a reserve of fat for times of food shortage; and at the same time played a role in communication within the herd or as a warning to predators.
The Ornitopods have a despair morphological diversity: some walked on two legs and others on four, including species found in Morella, that although it spent most of its time walking on all fours legs; it also had the ability to make short trips only with hind limb.
The most remarkable feature of this Ornitopod, is the presence of very tall neural spines in the dorsal vertebrae. After a complex work done by scientists on the one hand, phylogenetic analysis of relationship-relationship between species-and on the other, comparison of fossil remains found in 2013 with other dinosaurs in the world, physically and through scientific literature; They could determine that this is a new species.
According to experts, with the skeletal remains -well preserved- that were rescued; They have clearly identified the different features compared to other dinosaurs, defining it as a species that was unknown until now. The bones of the hip almost complete, have been crucial to the study of the fossil; and up to eight specific characteristics that leave no room for controversy as to their status of new species.
The skull has not appeared yet, although a collection of teeth. It is not known what sex it was, since it is difficult to find it out with a single copy in existence, without doing other assimilations said Fernando Escaso, a paleontologist at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), and one of the authors of the discovery. In the same way, he said that this issue had unique characters, he is convinced that new species of dinosaurs will continue to appear and more Morelladon Beltrami’s fellows.
ALFA