[D] Tethyshadros insularis [sG] [T]
Describer
Dalla Vecchia 2009
Time
Cretaceous Late Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Hadrosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Liburnian Formation,Trieste Province, Italy
Length
4 m
Info
An articulated skeleton of a hadrosauroid dinosaur, Tethyshadros insularis n. gen., n. sp., was recovered from the Liburnian Formation (uppermost Cretaceous) of Villaggio del Pescatore in the Trieste Province of northeastern Italy. One of the most complete dinosaur fossil ever found, it shows for the first time the entire morphology of a hadrosauroid phylogenetically close to, but outside the North American and Asiatic hadrosaurids.
It lived on an island developed on a carbonate platform in the Tethys Ocean and the small size of the specimens suggests that it may be an insular dwarf. The skeleton has many peculiarities including cursorial adaptations, and a mix of derived and primitive features. European hadrosauroids probably did not evolve by vicariance nor did they colonize the European Archipelago from North America, but rather came from Asia by island hopping.
Holotype
SC 57021, complete and articulated skeleton.
Referred Material
SC 57022, partial, articulated forelimbs, possibly from a complete skeleton still in situ; SC 57023, an isolated left pubis; SC 57025, an isolated cervical vertebra with the right rib; SC 57026, a complete, but strongly crushed, skull and most of the lower jaws, with some parts of the postcranium, from an apparently complete skeleton affected by subaqueous sediment slumping; SC 57247, part of an articulated and probably complete skeleton that was damaged during extraction; SC 57256, an isolated dorsal rib. All the specimens are at the MCSNT.
Etymology
Tethys, an ocean that occupied the general position of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, and hadros for hadrosauroid, “Tethyan hadrosauroid”; insularis after the Latin insular for island dweller.
Horizon and Locality
A lens of well-bedded, black limestone, 10 meters-thick and 70 meters long, in the upper Campanian– Paleocene Liburnian Formation near the Villaggio del Pescatore, Trieste Province, north-eastern Italy. The whole lens possibly formed in less than 10,000 years (Arbulla et al., 2006). SC 57021, SC 57023, SC 57025, SC 57026, SC 57247, and SC 57256 come from different levels within the lens. The occurrence of the foraminifer Murciella cuvillieri immediately below the bonebearing lens (Dalla Vecchia, 2008), its range (Steuber et al., 2005), and the stratigraphic framework of the Karst Plateau (Jurkovs ˇek et al., 1996; Venturini et al., 2008), suggest a late Campanian– early Maastrichtian age for Tethyshadros. The presence of the alligatoroid Acynodon (Delfino and Buffetaut, 2006) further supports this age (Martin, 2007).
Diagnosis
Hadrosauroid dinosaur with the following autapomorphies: skull large (skull length 1.60–1.65 times humeral length) and elongate (skull length:height ratio 2.6); premaxillary denticles very large, slender and pointed; small paired crests in caudal part of parietals; jugal very long, slender, without ventral flange, portion caudal to dorsal process more than twice length of rostral process; infratemporal fenestra subrectangular and large, nearly twice orbit size; lateral distal condyle of quadrate flared and ventrally flat (nail-head shaped); first caudal centra longer than high; neural spines of proximal caudal vertebrae 1-6, and possibly also distal dorsals and sacrals, hatchetshaped; ribs of caudal vertebrae 1–5 tongue-shaped, craniocaudally wide and dorsoventrally flattened; long, whip-like mid- to distal part of tail with elongated vertebral centra, 2.4 to 3.4 times longer than high at mid-centrum in caudal vertebrae 18 to 32; centra of caudal vertebrae 23 to 33 with shape of semicylinders; a long segment of proximal caudal vertebrae without haemapophyses (first chevron between caudal vertebrae 7 and!["8)"](/"http://www.dinodata.info/Smileys/default/cool.gif" "\"Cool\"")
and consequently, there is a ventral “gap” representing 44% of the preserved holotype tail segment; distal end of haemapophyses in vertebrae 15–20 with a long posterior process; scapular blade asymmetrically expanded distally (like the primitive iguanodontians Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus); postacetabular process of ilium long, low, blade-like (no brevis shelf), triangular and tapering in lateral view; very long ischium with a sigmoid shaft and blunt, unexpanded distal end, not bent nor tapering; only three manual digits (digit V lost); flat distal articular end of metacarpals; only two phalanges in manual digit IV, distal one very reduced (lost phalanx 2 of other hadrosauroids); tibia considerably longer than femur. It also has the following unique combination of characters: low ilium with large and pendant supracetabular process and robust preacetabular process not markedly arched and without dorsal depression at the supracetabular process.
Dalla Vecchia 2009
Time
Cretaceous Late Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Hadrosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Liburnian Formation,Trieste Province, Italy
Length
4 m
Info
An articulated skeleton of a hadrosauroid dinosaur, Tethyshadros insularis n. gen., n. sp., was recovered from the Liburnian Formation (uppermost Cretaceous) of Villaggio del Pescatore in the Trieste Province of northeastern Italy. One of the most complete dinosaur fossil ever found, it shows for the first time the entire morphology of a hadrosauroid phylogenetically close to, but outside the North American and Asiatic hadrosaurids.
It lived on an island developed on a carbonate platform in the Tethys Ocean and the small size of the specimens suggests that it may be an insular dwarf. The skeleton has many peculiarities including cursorial adaptations, and a mix of derived and primitive features. European hadrosauroids probably did not evolve by vicariance nor did they colonize the European Archipelago from North America, but rather came from Asia by island hopping.
Holotype
SC 57021, complete and articulated skeleton.
Referred Material
SC 57022, partial, articulated forelimbs, possibly from a complete skeleton still in situ; SC 57023, an isolated left pubis; SC 57025, an isolated cervical vertebra with the right rib; SC 57026, a complete, but strongly crushed, skull and most of the lower jaws, with some parts of the postcranium, from an apparently complete skeleton affected by subaqueous sediment slumping; SC 57247, part of an articulated and probably complete skeleton that was damaged during extraction; SC 57256, an isolated dorsal rib. All the specimens are at the MCSNT.
Etymology
Tethys, an ocean that occupied the general position of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, and hadros for hadrosauroid, “Tethyan hadrosauroid”; insularis after the Latin insular for island dweller.
Horizon and Locality
A lens of well-bedded, black limestone, 10 meters-thick and 70 meters long, in the upper Campanian– Paleocene Liburnian Formation near the Villaggio del Pescatore, Trieste Province, north-eastern Italy. The whole lens possibly formed in less than 10,000 years (Arbulla et al., 2006). SC 57021, SC 57023, SC 57025, SC 57026, SC 57247, and SC 57256 come from different levels within the lens. The occurrence of the foraminifer Murciella cuvillieri immediately below the bonebearing lens (Dalla Vecchia, 2008), its range (Steuber et al., 2005), and the stratigraphic framework of the Karst Plateau (Jurkovs ˇek et al., 1996; Venturini et al., 2008), suggest a late Campanian– early Maastrichtian age for Tethyshadros. The presence of the alligatoroid Acynodon (Delfino and Buffetaut, 2006) further supports this age (Martin, 2007).
Diagnosis
Hadrosauroid dinosaur with the following autapomorphies: skull large (skull length 1.60–1.65 times humeral length) and elongate (skull length:height ratio 2.6); premaxillary denticles very large, slender and pointed; small paired crests in caudal part of parietals; jugal very long, slender, without ventral flange, portion caudal to dorsal process more than twice length of rostral process; infratemporal fenestra subrectangular and large, nearly twice orbit size; lateral distal condyle of quadrate flared and ventrally flat (nail-head shaped); first caudal centra longer than high; neural spines of proximal caudal vertebrae 1-6, and possibly also distal dorsals and sacrals, hatchetshaped; ribs of caudal vertebrae 1–5 tongue-shaped, craniocaudally wide and dorsoventrally flattened; long, whip-like mid- to distal part of tail with elongated vertebral centra, 2.4 to 3.4 times longer than high at mid-centrum in caudal vertebrae 18 to 32; centra of caudal vertebrae 23 to 33 with shape of semicylinders; a long segment of proximal caudal vertebrae without haemapophyses (first chevron between caudal vertebrae 7 and
and consequently, there is a ventral “gap” representing 44% of the preserved holotype tail segment; distal end of haemapophyses in vertebrae 15–20 with a long posterior process; scapular blade asymmetrically expanded distally (like the primitive iguanodontians Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus); postacetabular process of ilium long, low, blade-like (no brevis shelf), triangular and tapering in lateral view; very long ischium with a sigmoid shaft and blunt, unexpanded distal end, not bent nor tapering; only three manual digits (digit V lost); flat distal articular end of metacarpals; only two phalanges in manual digit IV, distal one very reduced (lost phalanx 2 of other hadrosauroids); tibia considerably longer than femur. It also has the following unique combination of characters: low ilium with large and pendant supracetabular process and robust preacetabular process not markedly arched and without dorsal depression at the supracetabular process.