In a lignite mine in Santa María de Ariño, in Teruel, remains of two partial skeletons of an ankylosauro (armored) dinosaur have been found that have made it possible to define a new type of dinosaur that will be called Europelta Carbonensis . The remains belong to the Lower Cretaceous and are between 113 and 110 million years old .
It is ” a new type of ankylosaurus dinosaur, the most complete found in Europe, ” explained the director of the Teruel-Dinópolis Joint Paleontological Foundation, Luis Alcalá during the presentation of the two partial skeletons found. Exactly, abundant material, both cranial and postcranial, has been recovered from the nodosaurid ankylosaur, from which it has been possible to precisely reconstruct the appearance of the animal.
Nodosaurids (Nodosauridae) were medium-sized, quadruped dinosaurs covered with plates known as osteoderms and ossicles. Unlike the ankylosaurids ( Ankylosauridae ), the nodosaurids did not have ossified tendons on the tail and did not have a club at the end. According to the investigations, it would measure about 5 meters long, it would not be much taller than one meter, it fed on plants and its weight would be around 2 tons .
Apart from the two individuals studied, another specimen of ankylosauro has been recovered and is awaiting paleontological preparation.
Teruel is one of the most important areas in the world at a paleontological level. Full of deposits there have been found, among others, the largest dinosaur femur in Europe or recently two new species of fossil crocodiles.
The discovery took place in the town of Ariño, in its spectacular deposit of more than 25 hectares where more than 100 Mesozoic vertebrates are concentrated and where more than 6,000 fossil bones have already been found. Paleontological work has been carried out at the Santa María open-cast lignite mine since 2010 . The characteristics of the new dinosaur are published today in the scientific journal PlosONE in a work carried out by a team of paleontologists from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis (Aragonese Museum of Paleontology), the Geological Survey of Utah (USA) and the Museum of Natural History of Utah (USA): James I. Kirkland, Luis Alcalá, Mark A. Loewen, Eduardo Espílez, Luis Mampel and Jelle P. Wiersma.
