Just three weeks after starting the new excavations at the Barrihonda-El Humero site in Riodeva (Teruel), paleontologists have found new fossil remains, including a giant vertebra. Although it has not yet been confirmed, everything indicates that it belonged to a specimen of Turiasaurus riodevensis , considered the largest dinosaur in Europe .
The fossils found in the Teruel site are already in the laboratory for their preparation and subsequent study. So that the bones do not deteriorate during extraction and transport, the remains are removed in large blocks within a matrix, so that paleontologists have only been able to make a first assessment.
In addition to the huge vertebra, researchers have found a nearly complete hind leg of a dinosaur that had not been recorded at the site until now. The remains found neither belong to Turiasaurus , nor to a stegosaurus, nor to some small carnivores previously found in Riodeva. "This new leg corresponds to a dinosaur from the ornithopod group and it will be necessary to determine which one it is," says Luis Alcalá, managing director of the Teruel-Dinópolis Joint Paleontological Foundation.
