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

Abstract

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.