A new species of ornithopod dinosaur has been discovered in Spain dating back 125 million years to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch.At roughly 20 feet (6 m) in length and 8 feet (2.5 m) high, the new species – scientifically named Morelladon beltrani – was a relatively large dinosaur.The dinosaur’s incomplete skeleton was collected in the Mas de Sabaté site within the Mas de la Parreta Quarry at Morella, Spain.

Life reconstruction of Morelladon beltrani. Image credit: Carlos de Miguel Chaves.

It was analyzed by a team of Spanish paleontologists from the National Distance Education University (NDEU) in Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid (AUM).The paleontologists said Morelladon beltrani is so unique that it represents a new genus.

The beast, according to the team, was a relative of Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis and the famous duckbilled, plant-eating Iguanodon.

“An analysis of the evolutionary relationships of Morelladon shows that it is most closely related to Iguanodon and Mantelliaurus species also from the same location in Spain,” said Dr José Miguel Gasulla of the AUM’s Department of Paleontology and his colleagues.

“This suggests that in the Early Cretaceous of Europe, which would have been an island archipelago at the time, we had endemic pockets of dinosaurs living and evolving alongside one another.”

The Morelladon beltrani’s most distinctive feature is the presence of tall neural spines on dorsal vertebrae, which was possibly a ‘sail’ used for thermoregulation, or as a storage place for fat to be used during periods of low food supply.

“We knew the dinosaur fauna from Morella was similar to those of other contemporary European sites,” said Dr Fernando Escaso of the NDEU’s Group of Evolutionary Biology. “However, this discovery shows an interesting rise of the iguanodontoid diversity in southern Europe 125 million years ago.”

“The discovery of Morelladon beltrani, combined with other recently named taxa (Delapparentia turolensis, Proa valdearinnoensis, Iguanodon galvensis), recognizes the Iberian Peninsula as a highly diverse Early Cretaceous medium-large bodied styracosternan assemblage worldwide,” the scientists said.The discovery is reported December 16 in the online edition of the journal PLoS ONE.

Courtesy: article by Enrico de Lazaro in Scinews.com

Key: WFS, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society