Portellsaurus

Portellsaurus
Temporal range: Barremian, 130–129 Ma
Holotype dentary
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Clade: Hadrosauriformes
Superfamily: Hadrosauroidea
Genus: Portellsaurus
Santos-Cubedo et al., 2021
Species:
P. sosbaynati
Binomial name
Portellsaurus sosbaynati
Santos-Cubedo et al., 2021

Portellsaurus (meaning "Portell Lizard") is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Margas de Mirambell Formation of Spain. The genus contains a single species, Portellsaurus sosbaynati, known from a partial right dentary.[1]

Discovery and naming

[edit]

Portellsaurus was discovered in 1998 by Miquel Guardiola, Julián Yuste and Silvia Fabregat in a site near Mas de Curolles. The generic name, Portellsaurus, comes from the Portell de Morella, the town where the holotype was recovered, and the specific name, sosbaynati, refers to Vicente Sos Baynat, a Spanish geologist who was the first scientist honored by Universitat Jaume I as "Doctor Honoris Causa".[1]

Description

[edit]

Portellsaurus is known from an almost complete right dentary, MQ98-II-1, which is stored at the Colección Museográfica de Cinctorres in Castellón.

Portellsaurus can be distinguished from other styracosternans through the possession of two unique features: the absence of a bulge along the ventral margin directly below the base of the coronoid process, convergently found in Altirhinus and Sirindhorna, and the presence of a deep oval cavity on the middle of the lower jaw's adductor fossa below the eleventh-twelfth tooth position. This cavity internally connects with the last nutrient foramina in the dentary.[1]

Classification

[edit]

Santos-Cubedo et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis based on the dataset used in the redescription of Iguanodon galvensis[2] and recovered Portellsaurus as a derived non-hadrosauromorph hadrosauroid. Below is the 50% majority consensus tree from the analysis:[1]

Ankylopollexia

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Santos-Cubedo, Andrés; de Santisteban, Carlos; Poza, Begoña; Meseguer, Sergi (2021-07-07). "A new styracosternan hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous of Portell, Spain". PLOS ONE. 16 (7): e0253599. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1653599S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253599. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 8262792. PMID 34232957.
  2. ^ Verdú, Francisco Javier; Royo-Torres, Rafael; Cobos, Alberto; Alcalá, Luis (2018-05-19). "New systematic and phylogenetic data about the early Barremian Iguanodon galvensis (Ornithopoda: Iguanodontoidea) from Spain". Historical Biology. 30 (4): 437–474. Bibcode:2018HBio...30..437V. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1287179. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 89715643.