A team of paleontologists from the Dinópolis Foundation of Teruel and the University of Colorado Denver (USA) has identified new fossils of the so-called carnivorous megadinosaurs in the Jurassic-Cretaceous transit . The work has been published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology .
These new fossils, discovered in the deposits of El Castellar (declared a Site of Cultural Interest by the Government of Aragon in 2004) and Formiche Alto (Teruel), whose sediments are 145 million years old, are made up of a trace with large tridactyl tracks of about 60 centimeters in length (El Castellar) and a large tooth (Formiche Alto).
According to the researchers, tridactyl footprints have such unique characteristics that they have made it possible to identify a new type of dinosaur footprint: that of the Iberosauripus grandis (or foot of the large Iberian lizard). In addition, the gigantic tooth has been attributed to a megalosaurid theropod dinosaur, which is believed to have reached 12 meters in length and whose teeth would reach up to 10 centimeters in crown.
The analysis of all the remains found has led to the deduction that the dinosaur faunas of the Jurassic-Cretaceous transit in this part of Spain include, at least, two types of large mega-carnivorous dinosaurs , the allosaurid theropods and the megalosaurids.
