Paleontologists from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis have discovered the fossil remains of the head ofTuriasaurus riodevensis, the largest dinosaur in Europe, found in Teruel in 2003. The discovery of the skull bones thus completes the dinosaur’s skeleton, according to the SINC agency.
Since May 2003, when the first fossil remains ofTuriasaurus riodevensis, paleontologists hoped to find one of the key pieces for its reconstruction: the head. With the excavation campaign of 2005, the objective was met. Researchersrecovered 24 very fragile cranial bones and 7 teeth. Despite the large size ofTuriasaurus riodevensis-measured about 30 meters in length and weighed about 40 tons-,the skull – of which 70% has been recovered – is only 78 centimeters long. The antiquity ofTuriasaurus riodevensisit is estimated to be 145 million years old.
The finding, which has now been published in the journalJournal of Systematic Paleontology, completes the dinosaur skeleton, although 45% of the bones are still to be found, including tail vertebrae and some ribs. “Actually, a greater proportion of the skeleton is known than that percentage can make us think, because many elements are symmetrical: obtained from one side, we automatically know what the one on the opposite side was like, even though it has not been found,” he points out. SINC Luis Alcalá, Scientific Director of the Foundation.
So far, only two species of theropods (the carnivorous dinosaursConcavenator YPelecanimimus) presented a “more or less” complete skull, becausethese types of bones are very rarely preserved as they are “extremely” fragiledue to its delicate structure. In addition, of the 10 species of sauropods documented in the Iberian Peninsula, only some skull bones are known from two of them:Losillasaurus YLirainosaurus. Turiasaurus thus becomesthe most complete sauropod in the Iberian Peninsula.
