Oblitosaurus Bunnueli, a cinema dinosaur from Teruel

February 20, 2024 marks 200 years since English naturalist William Buckland (1784-1856) described what is considered science’s first dinosaur, the Megalosaurus. Two centuries later New species of dinosaurs continue to be discovered across the planet., and our knowledge about this particular group of animals continues to increase. Aragon in general and the province of Teruel in particular are among those places where new discoveries seem endless due to geological conditions that favor the discovery of “terrible lizards”.

The beginning of the relationship between dinosaurs and Teruel dates back to the beginnings of dinosaurology in Spain. The first scientific documentation in our country was written about them. Most notably, Juan Vilanova y Piera (1821-1893) attributed several Utrillas fossils to Iguanodon in 1872. Fossils of the first new dinosaur in Spain also come from Teruel, in particular from Galve, Aragosaurus ischialisdescribed in 1987 by a group of paleontologists from the Complutense University of Madrid and the Catalan Institute of Paleontology.

The province of Teruel has a very abundant and varied dinosaur fossil record at sites that generally range from the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous (between approximately 155 and 100 million years ago). These characteristics allow us to consider the south of Aragon as one of the areas of greatest global importance for knowledge of the evolution of these animals.

One of them is called Oblitosaurus bunnueliforks one of the last new ornithopod dinosaurs described anywhere on the planet, and the last new dinosaur described in Aragon.which was scientifically published last July by paleontologists from the Dinopolis Foundation.

Oblithosaurus belongs to the group of ornithopods. This group of dinosaurs was large, diverse and They inhabited our planet from the Early Jurassic until the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs in the Upper Cretaceous. (between approximately 200 and 66 million years ago).

The great variety of forms which we find in ornithopods, and the fact that they do not have any particularly remarkable and striking characteristic common to all of them, makes them difficult to define from a scientific and informative point of view, and this is not the case in many cases. there are them less popular compared to other dinosaurs such as theropods (carnivorous animals), sauropods (long-necked) or thyreophora (armored).

Ornithopods are characterized mainly They feed on plants, move on both bipeds and quadrupeds, have a horny beak, a short neck and lack a shell.

Additionally, ornithopods such as Oblithosaurus They depict a thumb turned into a conical spur.and are called ankylopolexiosis. These dinosaurs include better-known species such as Iguanodon or Proa (whose fossils have also been found in the province of Teruel), as well as the famous “duck-billed” hadrosaurids such as Parasaurolophus or Arenysaurus from Huesca.

Oblithosaurus In the Upper Jurassic, it inhabited the coastal ecosystems of the eastern Iberian Peninsula. We know this because their fossils were found in rocks of the so-called Villar del Arzobispo formation in the municipality of Riodeva, in a site that paleontologists from the Dinopolis Foundation discovered in 2003 and which we called Barrionda El Humero.

Geological studies together with sedimentology and stratigraphy show that this geological formation is of a transitional nature, i.e. Its sediments were deposited in areas adjacent to the coastline.. In addition, the analysis and study of some marine microfossils, called benthic macroforaminifera, found in the rocks of this geological formation have determined that these Riodeva fossils correspond to the last geological stages (Kimmeridgian-Tithonian) of the Upper Jurassic with an age of 155 to 155 years. and 145 million years.

History of the investigation

The first fossils of this ornithopod were found at the Barrionda El Humero site already in the first decade of this century. Some of them were even exhibited for several years in the halls of the Aragonese Paleontological Museum of Dinopolis in Teruel, without being subjected to in-depth study. The difficult investigation began only at the end of 2022.as part of one of the Dinopolis Foundation’s research areas on ornithischian dinosaurs with a bird’s hip.

From the beginning of a detailed study of ornithopod fossils to their publication in the prestigious international scientific journal “Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society”, where it has already been described Oblitosaurus bunnueli, about a year and a half has passed. For this it is necessary use scientific methodology.

The first step consists of anatomically identify fossils and analyze their morphological and biometric characteristics. Once all this information is obtained, the next step is to find out what type of dinosaur they belonged to, which requires resorting to comparative anatomy. This discipline is responsible for the study of similarities and differences in the anatomical structures of organisms, whose father was Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).

In our case, the basis is based on conclusions drawn from comparative anatomy. identify unique differences in studied fossils in relation to those of any other known ornithopod in the world with the aim of creating a new genus and species. After the conclusion of the latter, family relations and position Oblitosaurus bunnueli in the evolutionary history of ornithopod dinosaurs. This allows us to draw a conclusion with reasonable confidence about its appearance and size.

Tribute to paleontology

For the authors of the study of this dinosaur and this article, scientific publication went beyond the scope of purely paleontological work. In a modest way, we have also tried to provide additional cultural value to promote the dissemination of the cinematic heritage of Aragon, Spain and Mexico. Taking advantage of the fact that 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of one of the most famous directors in the history of world cinema, Calandino Luis Buñuel, and that from the Dinopolis Foundation we also celebrate this year the 25th anniversary of its creation. government of Aragon, we pretend that pay tribute to the universal director through paleontology, dedicating the new dinosaur of Teruel to him.

In a sense it can be said that Due to the large size of sauropod and stegosaur fossils from the same locality, fossils classified as ornithopods have gone somewhat unnoticed and have not been studied in depth. That’s why we call the new dinosaur genus Oblitosaurus the “forgotten lizard.” Thus, we relate it to one of Buñuel’s most famous films, declared an audiovisual heritage of humanity, Los Olvidados. In addition, a tribute to the Aragonese director of a new look is indicated in the title. O. bonnueli. In short, Buñuel’s “forgotten lizard” thus became another of the new dinosaurs described in Aragon, of which Teruel is the headliner.

Unique dinosaur

Oblithosaurus fossils consist of tooth, phalanx of the hand and almost complete left hind limb (femur, tibia, fibula, calcaneus, talus, metatarsus and several phalanges). Its remains appeared at the Barrionda El Humero site along with the remains of other dinosaurs, such as the largest sauropod dinosaur identified in Europe. Thuriasaurus riodevensisat least two European stegosaurus specimens Dacenturus armatus and several theropod teeth related to allosaurids (relatives of Allosaurus) and dromaeosaurids (relatives of Velociraptor). The same applies to other vertebrates, such as the turtle. Riodevemys inumbragigascrocodiles and fish are part of the extraordinary fossil record of this site in Riodeva.

If something characterizes the discovery Oblitosaurus bunnueli This is its exclusivity. Although today we know only a small part of his skeleton, Its fossils have a number of unique characteristics. were different from those of other similar ornithopods, allowing us to identify a new genus and species.

It must be taken into account that the discovery of oblithosaurus occurs in a context in which Fossils of this group of dinosaurs are particularly rare and fragmentary throughout Europe during the Jurassic period. Evolutionary analysis shows that Oblithosaurus is closely related to Draconyx from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal and to species of the genus Camptosaurus from the Upper Jurassic of Europe and North America. Likewise, the results have important taxonomic implications for Camptosaurus. Moreover, this allowed us to give a scientific definition of what ankylopolexians are.

Oblithosaurus is unusually larger than expected for a Jurassic ornithopod. Size estimates for Oblithosaurus suggest that it may have reached 7 meters in length, like other “more advanced” ornithopods from the Early Cretaceous (approximately 125 million years ago), making it the largest ornithopod described in the European Jurassic and one of the largest in the world. Oblithosaurus provides insight into the diversity of this group of dinosaurs during the European Upper Jurassic.

On the other hand, for many years there has been evidence of the presence large ornithopod tracks, about 25-35 cm long, throughout the Iberian Peninsula.; However, the dinosaur that could have produced them was unknown. These traces occur in Jurassic outcrops of the Portuguese coast, the Asturian coast, in the interior of the province of Valencia and in the province of Teruel. We can now postulate that Oblitosaurus is a potential producer of such tracks.

Sergio Sanchez Fenollosa and Alberto Cobos Foundation of the Paleontological Complex of Teruel-Dinopolis

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