Company, Julio

Pereda-Suberbiola, Xabier

Ruiz-Omeñaca, José Ignacio

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4TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGISTS   101  Rhabdodontid ornithopod remains from the Late Cretaceous of Chera (Valencia, Iberian Peninsula): a tentative assignment  Xabier PEREDA-SUBERBIOLA1, Julio COMPANY2 & José Ignacio RUIZ-OMEÑACA3  1 Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad del País Vasco/EHU, 48080 Bilbao, Spain; 2 Departamento de Ingeniería del Terreno, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain; 3 Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA), 33328 Colunga, Spain   The Late Cretaceous (mid-Campanian to lower Maastrichtian) palustrine beds of the Sierra Perenchiza Formation at Chera (Valencia province, eastern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded a rich vertebrate fauna composed of actinopterygians, amphibians, squamates, chelonians, crocodyliformes, dinosaurs and pterosaurs. The Chera sites are one of the most productive latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate localities from Europe (Company, 2005). Among dinosaurs, ornithopod remains are quite abundant and constitutes up to the 65 % of the identifiable remains of some fossiliferous horizons. Recovered material consists of fragmentary, isolated or partially associated cranial and postcranial elements, including a fragment of a maxilla, isolated maxillary and dentary teeth, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, a partial sacrum, a partial ischium, humeri, femora, fibulae and tibiae, fragmentary metatopodials and phalanges. Several individuals, ranging in age from immature to mature specimens, are represented in the Chera assemblages. The Chera ornithopod is referred here to the Rhabdodontidae, because of its dental morphology and the bowed nature of the recovered femora (Weishampel et al., 2003). The Chera teeth are in-distinguishable from those of the rhabdodontid Rhabdodon from the Campanian-Maastrichtian of the Ibero-Armorican Realm (Brikmann, 1988; Pereda-Suberbiola & Sanz, 1998; Pincemaille-Quillévéré, 2002) and, apparently, differ from those of Zalmoxes, a close relative  from the Campanian-Maastrichtian of Central Europe (Sachs & Hornung, in press), in having a lesser number of secondary ridges on the lingual side of the dentary crowns. The Chera femora exhibit a fourth trochanter entirely located on the proximal half of the shaft, as is in Rhabdodon priscus, in contrast to that of Zalmoxes, in which the fourth trochanter is placed at midshaft or on the distal half of the femur (Weishampel et al., 2003). Moreover, the deltopectoral crest of the humerus is well projected laterally, as is usually in Rhabdodon priscus. Hence, Based on tooth and limb bone features, the Chera rhabdodontid is tentatively assigned to Rhabdodon priscus. The body size estimates for the Chera Rhabdodon ranges approximately from 5 to 5,5 m for the largest, presumably mature specimens. Adult individuals of Zalmoxes are about 3-4 m in length (Weishampel et al., 2003) whereas Rhabdodon specimens from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula can reach a greater size of about 5-7 m long (Pereda-Suberbiola & Sanz, 1999; Pincemaille-Quillévéré, 2002).  References Brinkmann, W. (1988). Zur Fundgeschichte und Systematik der Ornithopoden (Ornithischia, Reptilia) aus der Ober-Kriede von Europa. Documenta Naturae, 45: 1–157. Company, J. (2005). Vertebrados continentales del Cretácico superior (Campaniense-Maastrichtiense) de Valencia. PhD Thesis, Universidad de Valencia, 410 pp (unpublished).  Pereda-Suberbiola, X. & Sanz, J. L. (1999). The ornithopod dinosaur Rhabdodon from the Upper Cretaceous of Laño (Iberian Peninsula). Estudios del Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Alava, 14 (Num. Espec. 1): 257–272. Pincemaille-Quillévéré, M. (2002). Description d’un squelette partiel de Rhabdodon priscus (Euornithopoda) du Crétacé supérieur de Vitrolles (Bouches du Rhône, France). Oryctos, 4: 39–70. Sachs, S. & Hornung, J.J. (in press). Juvenile ornithopod (Dinosauria: Rhabdodontidae) remains from the Upper Cretaceous (Lower Campanian, Gosau Group) of Muthmannsdorf (Lower Austria). Geobios, available online 6 March 2006. Weishampel, D.B., Jianu, C.-M., Csiki, Z. & Norman, D.B. (2003). Osteology and phylogeny of Zalmoxes (n. g.), an unusual Euornithopod dinosaur from the latest Cretaceous of Romania. Journal of Systematic Palaentology, 1(2): 65–123. 

Rhabdodontid ornithopod remains from the Late Cretaceous of Chera (Valencia, Iberian Peninsula): a tentative assignment

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Rhabdodontid ornithopod remains from the Late Cretaceous of Chera (Valencia, Iberian Peninsula): a tentative assignment

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