The recently described clade Allodaposuchidae includes European eusuchian crocodyliforms restricted to the Late Cretaceous (Campanian and Maastrichtian). A new allodaposuchid crocodyliform is here described based on two specimens from the upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian fossil site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain). This new taxon, Agaresuchus fontisensis gen. et sp. nov., is described by two complete skulls and a lower jaw associated with one of them. This new species can be distinguished unambiguously from Lohuecosuchus megadontos, the other allodaposuchid known from the same fossil site. The presence of two allodaposuchid crocodyliforms in Lo Hueco allows the recognition of the synchronic and sympatric existence of two representatives of this clade for the first time. The new genus Agaresuchus, comprises a previously described Iberian allodaposuchid species,-Allodaposuchus‖ subjuniperus, as Agaresuchus subjuniperus, new combination. Romania. A nearly complete skull from Oarda de Jos (Hateg Basin, Romania) was later referred to the species (Delfino et al., 2008), significantly improving the knowledge on this taxon. Several subsequently described crocodyliforms from Campanian and Maastrichtian sites of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France were also identified as allodaposuchids (see Narváez et al., 2015). Most of them correspond to forms described in recent years. The Iberian forms include Allodaposuchus subjuniperus Puértolas
The late Campanian-early Maastrichtian site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain) has provided a set of well-preserved crocodyliform skull and lower jaw remains, which are described here and assigned to a new basal eusuchian taxon, Lohuecosuchus megadontos gen. et sp. nov. The reevaluation of a complete skull from the synchronous site of Fox-Amphoux (Department of Var, France) allows us to define a second species of this new genus. Phylogenetic analysis places Lohuecosuchus in a clade exclusively composed by European Late Cretaceous taxa. This new clade, defined here as Allodaposuchidae, is recognized as the sister group of Hylaeochampsidae, also comprised of European Cretaceous forms. Allodaposuchidae and Hylaeochampsidae are grouped in a clade identified as the sister group of Crocodylia, the only crocodyliform lineage that reaches our days. Allodaposuchidae shows a vicariant distribution pattern in the European Late Cretaceous archipelago, with several Ibero-Armorican forms more closely related to each other than with to Romanian Allodaposuchus precedens.
Carcharodontosaurs were the largest predatory dinosaurs, and their early evolutionary history seems to be more intricate than was previously thought. Until recently, carcharodontosaurs were restricted to a group of large theropods inhabiting the Late Cretaceous Gondwanan land masses, but in the last few years Laurasian evidence has been causing a reevaluation of their initial diversification. Here we describe an almost complete and exquisitely preserved skeleton of a medium-sized (roughly six metres long) theropod from the Lower Cretaceous series (Barremian stage) Konservat-Lagerstätte of Las Hoyas in Cuenca, Spain. Cladistic analysis supports the idea that the new taxon Concavenator corcovatus is a primitive member of Carcharodontosauria, exhibiting two unusual features: elongation of the neurapophyses of two presacral vertebrae forming a pointed, hump-like structure and a series of small bumps on the ulna. We think that these bumps are homologous to quill knobs present on some modern birds; the knobs are related to the insertion area of follicular ligaments that anchor the roots of the flight feathers (remiges) to the arm. We propose that Concavenator has integumentary follicular structures inserted on the ulna, as in modern birds. Because scales do not have follicles, we consider the structures anchored to the Concavenator arms to be non-scale skin appendages homologous to the feathers of modern birds. If this is true, then the phylogenetic bracket for the presence of non-scale skin structures homologous to feathers in theropod dinosaurs would be extended to the Neotetanurae, enlarging the scope for explaining the origin of feathers in theropods.
Turiasauria is a clade of eusauropods with a wide stratigraphic range that could extend from the Bathonian to the lower Aptian including Turiasaurus, Losillasaurus, Zby and putatively, Galveosaurus, Atlasaurus and isolated remains from Middle Jurassic-to-Lower Cretaceous. Some are characterised by the presence of heart-shaped teeth. Several tooth occurrences from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic with this type of morphology (SI: 1.1-1.8) are reported and discussed. If this morphology is regarded as synapomorphic of Turiasauria, the teeth will be tentatively related to this clade. From a sample of 43 teeth, three main morphotypes are described. Three hypotheses might explain the morphological variation: (1) the range of tooth morphologies indicates variation in the jaw, (2) the range of tooth morphologies indicates taxonomic variation or (3) a combination of both. The general wear pattern in morphotypes I and II starts with a distal facet, then the appearance of mesial/apical facet and finally a 'V'-shaped facet. In morphotype III, the wear begins with a mesial facet. The variability observed for Portuguese Upper Jurassic specimens is congruent with the morphological variability along the tooth row shown by other sauropods with spatulate/spoon-shaped teeth and it is considered the most parsimonious hypothesis to explain it.
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).
The Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) fossil site of Lo Hueco was recently discovered close to the village of Fuentes (Cuenca, Spain) during the cutting of a little hill for installation of the railway of the Madrid-Levante high-speed train. To date, it has yielded a rich collection of well-preserved Cretaceous macrofossils, including plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The recovered fossil assemblage is mainly composed of plants, molluscs (bivalves and gastropods), actinopterygians and teleosteans fishes, amphibians, panpleurodiran (bothremydids) and pancryptodiran turtles, squamate lizards, eusuchian crocodyliforms, rhabdodontid ornithopods, theropods (mainly dromaeosaurids), and titanosaur sauropods. This assemblage was deposited in a near-coast continental muddy floodplain crossed by distributary sandy channels, exposed intermittently to brackish or marine and freshwater flooding as well as to partial or total desiccation events.
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