New theropod remains from the late Barremian (Early Cretaceous) of Eastern Iberian Peninsula

ABSTRACT

In the last decade, the Iberian Peninsula has become a hot spot in the understanding of the early evolutionary history of large-bodied theropods from the Early Cretaceous, especially for the Spinosauridae and Carcharodontosauridae families. To date, at least five species of spinosaurids and one species of carcharodontosaurid inhabited the Iberian region during the Barremian. However, the discovery of new fossil remains suggests that such a diversity of medium- to large-sized theropods could be even higher. Here, we describe an unpublished large theropod tooth and two caudal vertebrae collected in the late 70s in the upper Barremian strata of the Arcillas de Morella Formation (Morella, eastern Spain). The tooth element displays a series of features that allow its identification as cf. Protathlitis, while the vertebral elements are tentatively attributed to an indeterminate carcharodontosaurid. Interestingly, these last remains are different from those of Concavenator, allowing speculation about the occurrence of another species of carcharodontosaurid allosauroids in the Iberian Peninsula during the Early Cretaceous apart from the famed humpbacked dinosaurs and with some reminiscence to Acrocanthosaurus. Therefore, the new findings clearly illustrate the significance of any new theropod remains in depicting the theropod diversity before the final break-up of Pangea in the Iberian Peninsula.

KEYWORDS:

• Spinosauridae
• Carcharodontosauridae
• Early Cretaceous
• Barremian

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2024.2308220

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. AS research is supported by the project VIGEOCULT [PLEC2021-00793] and funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. AS is member of the Consolidate Research Group ‘Reptilian Ecosystems’ [2021 SGR 01192], approved by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors thank the collaboration of the ICP Collections Manager and the institution for granting valuable historical information about the studies specimen. This manuscript benefited from comments from two anonymous reviewers and editor Gareth Dyke.