Spain Yields First Diplodocus Fossils Outside US, 14 Tail Bones Redraw 150-Million-Year Range
Updated
Updated · Popular Science · Sep 15
Spain Yields First Diplodocus Fossils Outside US, 14 Tail Bones Redraw 150-Million-Year Range
3 articles · Updated · Popular Science · Sep 15
Summary
Spanish paleontologists identified 14 well-preserved tail vertebrae and several chevron bones from El Castellar, Teruel, as Diplodocus—the first confirmed remains of the genus found outside North America.
Anatomical comparisons and phylogenetic analyses linked the specimen, dated about 150 million years ago, to Diplodocus and a close relative of Diplodocus hallorum.
The animal was about 25 meters long, comparable to North American Diplodocus, and its remains are now on display at Dinópolis's Aragones Museum of Paleontology.
The find suggests Late Jurassic dinosaurs could move between North America and Europe via temporary land bridges in the proto-North Atlantic, widening the known range of European sauropods and Iberian ecosystems.