The European roots of giant Africa predatory dinosaurs

Studies on the newly discovered fossils of the predator Dinosaur Camilillasaurus Cirugedae of Spain show that the giant bipedal spinosaurides of Africa are apparently from Europe. An international team led by the paleontologist SNSB Oliver Rauhut has now published these results in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica.

Tyrannosaurus is perhaps the best known two -known predator dinosaur – but not the largest known representative of this group: Spinosaurus occurred in Africa at the start of Cretaceous (around 95 million years ago) and was even larger, measuring up to 18 meters.

In collaboration with Spanish colleagues, Rauhut has now found new evidence that the gigantic spinosaurs had their roots in Europe. New discoveries and the recovery of the previously collected remains of the little-known predator dinosaur, Cirugedae Cirugedae of the lower Cretaceous period (approximately 128 million years ago) in Spain show that this species was a close relative of giant North African spinosaurs.

Camarillasaurus was found in the Spanish central province of Teruel. The fossil was initially classified as a ceratosaur – a group of predatory dinosaurs little known in Europe and whose occurrence in the lower Cretaceous of Spain would represent a discovery “outside of space and time”, as indicated in the original publication. This interpretation was based on some fragmentary remains described over 10 years ago.

During a new excavation campaign on the original fossil site, Rauhut and his colleagues from the University of Zaragoza found more remains of the dinosaur, including fragments of the jaw, the vertebra and the tooth and a bone of thigh and a foot label. The new discoveries allow the now published reinterpretation of family relationships of the Spanish predatory dinosaur. For example, paleontologists have found common characteristics between camarillasaurus and other spinosaurs in the lower jaw.

Rauhut, an expert dinosaur of the collection of paleontology and geology of the Bavarian state (SNSB-BSPG), goes further: “Our phylogenetic analyzes indicate that various other representatives of the spinosaurides of the Iberian peninsula are also on the evolutionary line leading to North African spinosaurides.”

The remains of various spinosaurs, mainly teeth, are common in the Iberian Peninsula, most of them anchored in continental deposits, including Camillasaurus Cirugedae. Researchers therefore assume that animals have lived and driven out in a terrestrial environment. The North African spinosaurus, on the other hand, is more recently interpreted as a fish eater that has spent most of its time in the water, depending on its anatomy. There is no Spain yet to support this thesis.