Describer

Royo-Torres, Cobos, & Alcalá 2006

Time

Jurassic Late Cretaceous Early Tithonian Berriasian

Classification

Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Sauropoda Turiasauria

Diet

Herbivore

Fossilsite

Villar del Arzobispo Formation, site RD-10 aka Barrihonda–El Humero, Riodeva, Teruel Province, Aragón, Spain

Length

> 30 meter ?

Info

Etymology

Turiasaurus, from Turia (word used since the 12th century from which Teruel derives) and sauros (Greek word, lizard); riodevensis, from Riodeva (village where the fossil site is located).

Holotype

An articulated left forelimb including humerus, radius, proximally incomplete ulna, carpal, five metacarpals, and seven phalanges (specimen numbers CPT-1195 to CPT-1210, housed in the Museo de la Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, Teruel, Aragón, Spain).

Paratype

Remains attributed to the same individual, found close to each other in an area of 280 m2, consisting of skull fragments, eight teeth, six cervical vertebrae with ribs probably cervicals 3 to , two proximal dorsal vertebrae, a middle dorsal vertebra, fragments of other dorsal vertebrae, eight dorsal ribs (five incomplete), a partial sacrum, two distal caudal vertebrae, a proximal fragment of the left scapula, a left sternal plate, a distal fragment of the left femur, a proximal fragment of the left tibia, a distally incomplete left fibula, a complete left astragalus, two left pedal phalanges, and an incomplete right astragalus and pes, housed in the Museo de la Fundación ConjuntoPaleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, Teruel, Spain.

Diagnosis

Autapomorphies of Turiasaurus include the following: prezygapophyseal and postzygapophyseal articular facets on middle dorsal vertebrae strongly convex and concave, respectively; strongly convex subcircular hyposphene on middle dorsal vertebrae; distal caudal vertebrae strongly opisthocoelous; accessory process projecting caudodorsally from the dorsal margin of the shafts of proximal cervical ribs; distal humeral condyles strongly expanded cranially and caudally; radius and ulna distal condyles very compressed mediolaterally; carpal with two subcircular distal processes separated by a depression; cnemial crest of tibia reduced and directed cranially; fibula with roughened oval medial trochanter on middle-distal part; and metatarsal V with strongly expanded distal end.

Locality and horizon

Riodeva, Teruel Province, Aragón, Spain (grid coordinates Universal Transverse Mercator 659049 and 4443553), site RD-10 (known as Barrihonda–El Humero), in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Tithonian-Berriasian), conformably overlying the Higueruelas Formation. In Riodeva, the top of the Higueruelas is dated as early Tithonian based on the occurrence of the foraminiferan Anchispirocyclina lusitanica.

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