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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 8), 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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