(CN) --- Scientists say they have discovered a new iguanodon-like dinosaur in Spain.
Named Portellsaurus sosbaynati, the dinosaur was likely a 19- to 26-foot long herbivore that scientists think is closely related to species found in modern-day China and Niger.
Iguanodons were typically large plant eaters with hoof-like second, third and fourth digits, and in some cases, a specialized thumb spike and an opposable fifth digit. They lived in family groups and included hadrosaurids or “duck-billed dinosaurs.” Iguanodontians were among the most diverse and widespread herbivorous dinosaur groups of the Cretaceous period.
The new dinosaur was identified from a jawbone fossil found in Portell in the Maestrat Basin of the Iberian Range about 70 miles north of Castello de la Plana in eastern Spain. The Mas de Curolles-II (MQ-II) site was discovered in 1998 as the result of a geological prospecting campaign. Geologically, the site belongs to the Mirambell Formation, a 62-foot layer formed by an alternation of successive limestones, marls, carbonates and sandstones that evolve from continental environments to a shallow marine platform.
The fossil, consisting of 18 teeth embedded in bone, is distinguished by the absence of a bulge along the ventral margin, as well as the presence of a deep cavity on the medial surface of the mandibular adductor fossa, according to the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
While scientists are not certain whether the deep cavity was natural or caused by disease, evidence suggests it caused by adaptation rather than pathology.
The most common diseases in dinosaurs are fractures and traumas, which scientists excluded as the cause of the hole in in the Portell dentary. Infections (post-traumatic and non-traumatic) are the second cause of diseases in dinosaurs, but none of them are responsible for a similar pathology. Since neoplastic disease and metabolic disorders are rare in vertebrate fossils, it is highly unlikely that they are the cause of such structure in the dentary.
In addition, the cavity is the continuation of a channel that separates the inner edge of the coronoid process from the outer ones, indicating it is likely an anatomical character.
“Clearly, we can conclude (that) it is more plausible that oval cavity present in (the fossil) is an apomorphic character rather than a paleopathology,” the researchers concluded. “Hence, Portellsaurus sosbaynati is definitely the first styracosternan dinosaur species identified from the Margas de Mirambell Formation.”
While previous studies have produced conflicting or poorly resolved hypotheses of the relationships within Hadrosauroidea, scientists hope recent discoveries such as the fossil from Portell shed new light on the knowledge of hadrosauroid evolution.
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