New evidence of shared dinosaur across Upper Jurassic Proto-North Atlantic: Stegosaurus from Portugal.
More than one century after its original description by Marsh in 1877, we report in this paper the first uncontroversial evidence of a member of the genus Stegosaurus out of North America. The specimen consists of a partial skeleton from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal, herein considered as Stegosaurus cf. ungulatus. The presence of this plated dinosaur in the upper Kimmeridgian-lower Tithonian Portuguese record and synchronic levels of the Morrison Formation of North America reinforces previous hypothesis of a close relationship between these two areas during the Late Jurassic. This relationship is also supported by geotectonic evidences indicating high probability of an episodic corridor between the Newfoundland and Iberian landmasses. Together, Portuguese Stegosaurus discovery and geotectonic inferences could provide a scenario with episodical faunal contact among North Atlantic landmasses during the uppermost Kimmeridgian-lowermost Tithonian (ca. 148-153 Ma ago).
Escaso
Fernando
F
Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain. fernando.escaso@unam.es
Ortega
Francisco
F
Dantas
Pedro
P
Malafaia
Elisabete
E
Pimentel
Nuno L
NL
Pereda-Suberbiola
Xabier
X
Sanz
José Luis
JL
Kullberg
José Carlos
JC
Kullberg
María Carla
MC
Barriga
Fernando
F
D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D025061:Dinosaurs / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D005580:Fossils; D010802:Phylogeny; D011174:Portugal