Delapparentia turolensis nov. gen et sp., un nuevo dinosaurio iguanodontoideo (Ornithischia: Ornithopoda) en el Cretácico Inferior de Galve

An ornithopod dinosaur postcranial skeleton from the Early Cretaceous of Galve (Teruel province, Spain), assigned to Iguanodon bernissartensis by the French paleontologist Albert de Lapparent in 1960, is redescribed. It comes from La Maca 3 locality, early Barremian in age (Camarillas Formation) and it is made of several cervical vertebrae, fragmentary remains of the dorsal and sacral series, several caudal vertebrae, fragments of cervical, dorsal and sternal ribs, fragments of chevrons and ossified tendons, and an incomplete left hip. It has been identified as an «iguanodontid» (i.e., a non-hadrosaurid iguanodontoid) by the presence of a deep prepubic blade and the absence of antitrochanter on ilium. The skeleton represents a new iguanodontoid taxon, Delapparentia turolensis nov. gen et sp., characterized by the following autapomorphies: 1) posterior dorsal ribs with long, parallel and unfused capitulum and tuberculum, 2) ossified sternal ribs, and 3) straight and lateromedially expanded preacetabular process of ilium (convergent in Zalmoxes). It also presents a combination of anterior dorsal ribs with a pneumatic foramen, and a ischium of big size in relation to ilium.Se redescribe un esqueleto postcraneal de dinosaurio ornitópodo asignado por Albert de Lapparent en 1960 a Iguanodon bernissartensis. Procede del yacimiento de La Maca 3, de edad Barremiense inferior (Formación Camarillas), y consta de varias vértebras cervicales, restos de la serie dorsal y sacra, varias vértebras caudales, fragmentos de costillas cervicales, dorsales, y esternales, chevrones y tendones osificados, y la hemipelvis izquierda incompleta. Se ha identificado como un «iguanodóntido» (i.e. un Iguanodontoidea no Hadrosauridae) por la presencia de una lámina prepubica alta y la ausencia de antitrocánter en el ilion. Se propone a partir de este material un nuevo taxón de iguanodontoideo, Delapparentia turolensis nov. gen et sp., caracterizado por las siguientes autapomorfías: 1) costillas dorsales posteriores con capítulo y tubérculo no fusionados, 2) costillas esternales osificadas, y 3) ilion con el proceso preacetabular torsionado y expandido lateromedialmente (compartida con Zalmoxes). Además presenta una combinación de costillas dorsales anteriores con un foramen neumático, e isquion grande en relación al ilion

First description of ornithopod dinosaur skeletal remains from the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (JurassicCretaceous transition): Cerrito del Olmo locality (Alpuente, Valencia, E Spain)

[EN] The Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Tithonian-Berriasian) in Teruel and Valencia provinces (SE Iberian Range) has yielded abundant skeletal remains of dinosaurs, mainly of sauropods and stegosaurs. Three vertebrae collected in the locality of Cerrito del Olmo I (Alpuente, Valencia province), two of them previously referred to the stegosaurid Dacentrurus armatus, belong in fact to an ornithopod. The material consists of one cervical and two caudal centra that preserve the base of the neural arch fused to the centrum. These remains are here assigned to Ornithopoda indet. on the basis of the combination of several characters more frequent in ornithopods than in stegosaurs. This is the first description of ornithopod skeletal remains from the Villar del Arzobispo Formation.Investigación financiada por los proyectos CGL2007-64061/BTE (X.P.S, J.C.) y CGL2007/62469/BTE (J.I.R.-O.) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, el grupo de investigación GIC 07/14-361 del Gobierno Vasco/EJ (X.P.S.) y el Protocolo de colaboración CN-04-226 entre la Consejería de Cultura y Turismo del Principado de Asturias y la Universidad de Oviedo (J.I.R-O). Nuestro agradecimiento a la Dra. Margarita Belinchón (MCNV) por su ayuda durante el estudio del material, y a la Dra. Gloria Cuenca-Bescós por la revisión del trabajo.Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Ruiz-Omeñaca, JI.; Company Rodríguez, J. (2010). Primera descripción de restos esqueléticos de dinosaurio ornitópodo en la Formación. Villar del Arzobispo (tránsito Jurásico-Cretácico): yacimiento de Cerrito del Olmo (Alpuente, Valencia). Geogaceta. 47:13-16. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/150357S13164

Archosaurian teeth (Crocodyliformes, Theropoda) from the Late Jurassic of BuÒol (Valencia province, E Spain)

[EN] Five isolated archosaurian teeth from Valencia province (eastern Spain) are studied in this work. They have been found in the ¿Cantera CarcalÌnª site, an outcrop of the marine Higueruelas Formation (Tithonian) in the vicinity of BuÒol town. They represent the first direct evidence of tetrapods in this formation, in which, up to the moment, only dinosaur tracks had been found in a locality of the adjacent Teruel province. Four of the teeth pertain to crocodyliforms, three to indeterminate crocodyliforms and another to a teleosaurid identified as cf. Machimosaurus sp., a taxon already known in the Kimmeridgian of the Iberian Peninsula (Asturias and Portugal). The fifth tooth is assigned to a theropod dinosaur, probably an allosauroid.El equipo de investigación del MUJA está subvencionado por el Protocolo de colaboración CN-04-226 entre la Consejería de Cultura y Turismo del Principado de Asturias y la Universidad de Oviedo. Este trabajo es una contribución a los proyectos CGL2007-62469/BTE(J.I.R-O) y CGL2007-64061/BTE (X.P.S,J.C.) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, y del grupo de investigación del Gobierno Vasco GIC07/14-361 (X.P.S.).Agradecemos a José Ignacio Canudo (Universidad de Zaragoza) y Francisco Ortega (UNED) la revisión crítica del manuscritoRuiz-Omeñaca, JI.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Company Rodríguez, J.; Belinchón, M. (2010). Dientes de arcosaurios (Crocodyliformes, Theropoda) del Jurásico Superior de Buñol (Valencia). Geogaceta. 48:35-38. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/150323S35384

Primera cita de cocodrilos zifodontos en el Cenozoico de Asturias: Royo Gómez y los supuestos dientes de dinosaurio del Eoceno de Llamaquique

In 1928, José Royo Gómez mentioned the find of “two teeth similar to those of theropod dinosaurs from the Secondary” in the Eocene of Llamaquique (Oviedo Basin, Asturias). Royo Gómez was aware of the interest of the discovery, “because they would be the youngest remains found of these gigantic reptiles”. According to the hitherto unpublished documents preserved in the Archives of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Royo Gómez photographed five teeth from Llamaquique in April 1932, which he regarded as belonging to theropods. The whereabouts of this material is currently unknown. However, the revision of the Llamaquique collection in the above mentioned museum has allowed to recover one labiolingually compressed and serrated tooth (ziphodont condition). We reject here that the tooth belongs to a theropod, and we assign it to a Mesoeucrocodylia indet. This is the first mention of the discovery of ziphodont crocodyliforms in the Paleogene of Asturias.En 1928, José Royo Gómez informó del hallazgo de “dos dientes idénticos a los de los Dinosaurios terópodos del Secundario” en el Eoceno de Llamaquique (Cuenca de Oviedo, Asturias). Royo Gómez era consciente del interés de este descubrimiento, “pues serían los restos más modernos que se conocerían de estos gigantescos reptiles”. Según la documentación conservada en el Archivo del Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales en Madrid, hasta ahora inédita, Royo Gómez fotografió en abril de 1932 cinco dientes de Llamaquique que él consideraba pertenecientes a terópodos. Este material se encuentra actualmente en paradero desconocido. No obstante, la revisión de la colección paleontológica de Llamaquique en el mencionado museo ha permitido recuperar un diente comprimido lateralmente y provisto de carenas denticuladas (condición zifodonta). Se descarta que el diente pertenezca a un terópodo, asignándose a un Mesoeucrocodylia indeterminado. Se trata de la primera mención del hallazgo de cocodrilos zifodontos en el Paleógeno de Asturias

La Cantalera: an exceptional window onto the vertebrate biodiversity of the Hauterivian-Barremian transition in the Iberian Peninsula.

La Cantalera is an accumulation site for fossil vertebrates consisting mainly of teeth and isolated postcranial remains. It has the greatest vertebrate biodiversity of any site from the Hauterivian-Barremian transition in the Iberian Peninsula. Up to now, 31 vertebrate taxa have been recognized: an osteichthyan (Teleostei indet.), two amphibians (Albanerpetonidae indet. and Discoglossidae indet.), a chelonian (Pleurosternidae? indet.), a lizard (Paramacellodidae? indet.), four crocodylomorphs (cf. Theriosuchus sp., Bernissartiidae indet., Goniopholididae indet., cf. Lisboasaurus sp.), two pterosaurs (Istiodactylidae? indet., Ornithocheiridae? indet.), four ornithopod dinosaurs (Iguanodontoidea indet., Hadrosauroidea? indet., “Hypsilophodontidae” indet., Rhabdodontidae? indet.), a thyreophoran (Polacanthidae indet.), a sauropod (Euhelopodidae indet.), eleven theropods (Carcharodontosauridae? indet., Baryonychinae indet., aff. Paronychodon sp., Maniraptora indet. 1-3, Dromaeosaurinae indet. 1-3, Velociraptorinae indet., Avialae? indet.) and three or four multituberculate mammals (Cantalera abadi, Eobaatar sp., Plagiaulacidae or Eobaataridae gen. et sp. indet., “Plagiaulacida” indet.). Nine ootaxa have also been distinguished at the site of La Cantalera. Oofamilies assigned to dinosaurs (Elongaloolithidae, Prismatoolithidae, cf. Spheroolithidae), to crocodiles (Krokolithidae) and eggshells of two oofamilies incertidae sedis are represented. This association is consistent with the record of bone and tooth remains from the site. La Cantalera was formed in a marshy environment where there was an intermittent body of water. The great majority of the vertebrate fossil remains lack evidence of transport, so the preserved association is a good representation of the vertebrate ecosystem in or around the marshy area of La Cantalera. The vertebrate association of La Cantalera displays certain differences with respect to those from lacustrine environments of the Hauterivian-Barremian transition of the Iberian Range. These differences include, for example, the absence of Chondrichthyes, the merely token presence of the osteichthyans, the scarcity of chelonians, the presence of exclusively multituberculate mammals, the lower diversity of sauropods and the greater diversity of theropods

Manus track preservation bias as a key factor for assessing trackmaker identity and quadrupedalism in basal ornithopods.

BACKGROUND: The Las Cerradicas site (Tithonian-Berriasian), Teruel, Spain, preserves at least seventeen dinosaur trackways, some of them formerly attributed to quadrupedal ornithopods, sauropods and theropods. The exposure of new track evidence allows a more detailed interpretation of the controversial tridactyl trackways as well as the modes of locomotion and taxonomic affinities of the trackmakers. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Detailed stratigraphic analysis reveals four different levels where footprints have been preserved in different modes. Within the tridactyl trackways, manus tracks are mainly present in a specific horizon relative to surface tracks. The presence of manus tracks is interpreted as evidence of an ornithopod trackmaker. Cross-sections produced from photogrammetric digital models show different depths of the pes and manus, suggesting covariance in loading between the forelimbs and the hindlimbs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Several features (digital pads, length/width ratio, claw marks) of some ornithopod pes tracks from Las Cerradicas are reminiscent of theropod pedal morphology. This morphological convergence, combined with the shallow nature of the manus tracks, which reduces preservation potential, opens a new window into the interpretation of these tridactyl tracks. Thus, trackmaker assignations during the Jurassic-Cretaceous interval of purported theropod trackways may potentially represent ornithopods. Moreover, the Las Cerradicas trackways are further evidence for quadrupedalism among some basal small- to medium-sized ornithopods from this time interval

Comparison of epidemiology and clinical characteristics of infections by human parechovirus vs. those by enterovirus during the first month of life

Human parechoviruses (HPeV) have been recently recognized as important viral agents in paediatric infections. The aims of this study were to investigate the HPeV infection prevalence in infants <1 month in Spain and, secondly, to analyse the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the infected patients compared with those infected by enterovirus (EV). Infants <1 month with neurological or systemic symptoms were included in a multicentre prospective study. EV and HPeV detection by RT-PCR and genotyping were performed in cerebrospinal fluids (CSF), sera or throat swabs. Out of the total of 84 infants studied during 2013, 32 were EV positive (38 %) and 9 HPeV positive (11 %). HPeV-3 was identified in eight cases and HPeV-5 in one. Mean age of HPeV-positive patients was 18 days. Diagnoses were fever without source (FWS) (67 %), clinical sepsis (22 %) and encephalitis (11 %). Leukocytes in blood and CSF were normal. Pleocytosis (p = 0.03) and meningitis (p = 0.001) were significantly more frequent in patients with EV infections than with HPeV. Conclusions: Although HPeV-3 infections were detected less frequently than EV, they still account for approximately 10 % of the cases analysed in infants younger than 1 month. HPeV-3 was mainly associated with FWS and without leukocytosis and pleocytosis in CSF. In these cases, HPeV screening is desirable to identify the aetiologic agent and prevent unnecessary treatment and prolonged hospitalization

New stegosaurian (Ornithischia, Thyreophora) remains from Jurassic-Cretaceous transition beds of Valencia province (Southwestern Iberian Range, Spain)

[EN] New stegosaurian remains have been recently recovered from the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition sandstones of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Tithonian-Berriasian) in the Valencia province, eastern Spain. Specimens consist of two partially articulated (or closely associated) postcranial skeletons. The Baldovar specimen is composed of appendicular bones (scapula, femur) and two pairs of dermal tail spines, two of them articulated with two distal caudal vertebrae. The second specimen, unearthed in the vicinity of La Yesa village, consists of dorsal vertebrae and ribs, fragments of caudal centra and an incomplete femur. The new specimens are tentatively referred to the clade Dacentrurinae and may belong to Dacentrurus on the basis of features observed on the dorsal vertebrae and caudal dermal spines. Stegosaurs are represented so far in the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition of Spain by Dacentrurus. The presence of other taxa (Stegosaurus, Miragaia) in Spain, recently documented in the Late Jurassic of Portugal, cannot be attested on the basis of the currently recorded material.The authors are very grateful to Marcal Joanes-Roses and Gabriel Sanz who found the specimens. Field works were supported by Generalitat Valenciana and La Yesa City Council. This research was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN, projects CGL2007-62469/BTE and CGL2007-64061/BTE; JIR-O and XPS), the Gobierno Vasco/EJ (GIC07/14-361; XPS) and the Principado de Asturias (Protocol CN-04-226; JIR-O). We acknowledge the valuable suggestions made by reviewers Peter Galton and David B. Weishampel.Company Rodríguez, J.; Pereda Suberbiola, X.; Ruiz-Omeñaca, JI. (2010). New stegosaurian (Ornithischia, Thyreophora) remains from Jurassic-Cretaceous transition beds of Valencia province (Southwestern Iberian Range, Spain). Journal of Iberian Geology. 36(2):243-252. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_JIGE.2010.v36.n2.10S24325236