Portugal news – A new Dinosaur species was just discovered in Portugal in the area of Cabo Espichel, that is a cape located in the district of Setúbal, south of Lisbon.
Cabo Espichel, on Portugal's Atlantic coast, is part of the Lusitanian Basin; a rift basin located on both the mainland and continental shelf off the west-central coast of Portugal, that was formed between the Late Triassic and the Late Jurassic periods.
The Cape, that is famous for its dinosaur fossil tracks along the Jurassic strata exposed by its cliffs, is the scene of a new fascinating discovery. Paleontologist Silvério Figueiredo and his team just published a review in ScienceDirect describing Sauropod dinosaur remains that suggest the occurrence of Titanosauriform Sauropods from the Lower Cretaceous period dated around 129 million years.
However, Sauropod dinosaurs are usually giants with a long neck and tail, out of which the majority of fossils discovered belong to the Titanosaur group. The Portuguese Centre of Geohistory and Prehistory (CPGP) has stated that the group of paleontologists has discovered the remains of a new species with two vertebrae that are in anatomical connection with a small individual. This discovery seems to indicate that it is a new species of Dinosaur that is of a small size compared to the others.
These dinosaurs lived in a lagoon area where different types of vertebrates used to cohabit, including crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles, and other types of dinosaurs.
The new fossil remains just discovered in Portugal shed a new light on the group of dinosaurs living in the area during the lower Barremian - Lower Cretaceous period.