MagazineNature publishes in its latest issue the description ofConcavenator corcovatus, a new carnivorous dinosaur (theropod) from the Lower Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago) at the Las Hoyas site in Cuenca. Studied by researchers from the UNED and the UAM, the sample is theThe most complete articulated dinosaur skeleton in the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the best preserved in Europe.
“Its hump is a singular characteristic unknown in any other dinosaur discovered so far. The last two vertebrae in front of the pelvis project their neural spines on the back of the animal, and form a kind of hump whose function is still unknown”, Francisco underlines Ortega, lead author of the study and researcher at the National University of Distance Education (UNED).
The analysis of the fossil has been laborious due to the previous phases of preparation, which have lasted more than two years. “The appearance of the fossil is impressive, both for its size (six meters in length) and for the excellent preservation of its remains,” the researchers explain.Concavenator corcovatusit is one of the great predators of the Las Hoyas ecosystem.His name means “the hunchbacked hunter of Cuenca”. The preservation of the fossil remains has allowed the Spanish team to identify some impressions of the animal’s skin, such as scales on the legs and on the tail. But also,Concavenator save another surprise. In many modern birds, the posterior border of one of the bones of the forearm, the ulna, has small bumps that serve for the insertion of the larger feathers in the wings. This characteristic had also been recognized in some small dinosaurs related to birds, such as Velociraptor.
“Concavenator, four times larger thanVelociraptor, and supposedly too primitive to have feathers, it also has small bumps on the ulna that indicate that this dinosaur alreadyhad structures in the skin that constitute an ancestral stage of the feathers of birds“says Ortega. For the expert, the recognition of these structures allows expanding the number of groups of dinosaurs in which, in addition to scales,” we should consider the presence of ancestor structures to the feathers of birds.
