Investigadores da SHN apresentam novos restos de Dryosauridae no XIII Annual Meeting da European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologist (EAVP) em Opole (Polónia)

Já vão alguns meses, mas não poderíamos deixar de dar constância à presença do investigador da Sociedade de História Natural e do Grupo Biología Evolutiva, Fernando Escaso, no XIII Annual Meeting da European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologist (EAVP) em Opole (Polónia). Neste trabalho foram apresentados diversos restos apendiculares provenientes de três jazidas encontradas na orla mesozoica portuguesa com três novos indivíduos de ornitópodes driossáurios. O material publicado pertence à Colecção Paleontológica da SHN.

Os resultados preliminares indicam que estas formas de pequenos dinossáurios fitófagos e corredores, que incluí a recente espécie publicada na prestigiada revista Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, também por investigadores da Sociedade de História Natural, Eousdryosaurus nanohallucis. Este animais pretéritos eram uma componente relevante dentro dos ecossistemas do Jurássico Superior Ibérico.

Aqui fica o resumo: 

"Dryosauridae is a monophyletic clade of small, cursorial, plant-eating ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in both Gondwana and Laurasia. This wide distribution is particularly evident during the Late Jurassic with the Laurasian Dryosaurus and Eousdryosaurus, and the Gondwanan Dysalotosaurus. The dryosaurid record from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal is based mainly on isolated material from the Lusitanian Basin in the central-west of the country. So far, merely a partial specimen from the Porto das Barcas locality represents Eousdryosaurus nanohallucis. In this context, the discovery of new localities bearing new dryosaurid specimens is worthy of note. Two new localities have provided only isolated femora, whereas a third comprises a well-preserved partial skeleton of a small dryosaurid ornithopod. The former specimens come from the upper Kimmeridgian-lower Tithonian Praia da Amoreira-Porto Novo Formation and the Tithonian Freixial Formation. The most complete specimen is a partial skeleton from the Tithonian beds of the Bombarral Formation in Peniche. It comprises mainly appendicular bones (humerus, femur, tibia) of a single individual. All the femora recorded exhibit two dryosaurid synapomorphies such as the proximally placed fourth trochanter, and the scar for the M. caudi femoralis longus restricted to the medial surface of the femoral shaft insertion and widely separated from the fourth trochanter. The new evidence of these dryosaurid ornithopods indicates that these small cursorial dinosaurs were common inhabitants and played an important role within the Iberian herbivorous communities during the Late Jurassic."

 ----- Referencia: 

• Escaso, F., Ortega, F., Malafaia, E., Mocho, P., Narváez, I., Silva, B.C., Gasulla, J.M., Sanz, J.L. 2015. New dryosaurid-bearing beds from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal. Abstracts book, 13th Annual Meeting de la European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologist (EAVP) in Opole, Poland, 148. 
• Na imagem, Fernando Escaso en pleno proceso de explicación de los resultados llevados al congreso.