A 150-million-year-old Diplodocus fossil discovered in Spain marks the first confirmed finding of the dinosaur outside of North America. The discovery suggests dinosaur movement between continents during the Late Jurassic period.
The fossils were unearthed at the La Tejería site in El Castellar, Teruel, Spain, by a team from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis. Researchers recovered 14 well-preserved caudal (tail) vertebrae and several chevron bones. Prior to this, all confirmed Diplodocus specimens originated from the Morrison Formation in the western United States.
Sergio Sánchez Fenollosa, PhD student in biodiversity and evolutionary biology at Fundación Dinópolis and lead author of the study, stated: “We are delighted with this discovery. It was an exciting and continuous process of seeing the pieces of the puzzle gradually fall into place. From the early stages of the osteological study, we noticed strong similarities with several diplodocine sauropods. As we looked more closely at the anatomy, we began to identify a combination of features characteristic of Diplodocus species. Then, as we carried out different evolutionary analyses, they kept pointing in the same direction. With each new result, the picture became clearer: we were looking at a Diplodocus.”
Sánchez Fenollosa added: “And what is more, the outcome of the dig is some of the strongest paleontological evidence for episodes of dispersal and faunal exchange between the two continents across the proto-Atlantic Ocean during the Late Jurassic. Essentially, this discovery allows us to better understand Iberian Mesozoic ecosystems and the diversity of sauropod dinosaurs that inhabited the European Jurassic.” The dinosaur lived approximately 150 million years ago, near the end of the Jurassic Period. The 25-meter-long sauropod is among the most complete diplodocid skeletons ever found in Europe.
Read the original coverage
💬 Comments
📜 Comment Policy