Unveiling the Most Complete Stegosaurus Skull: A Groundbreaking Discovery That Changes Dinosaur History

A new dinosaur find on a dusty hillside in Riodeva, Spain, is catching the attention of paleontologists. Researchers discovered the best-preserved stegosaur skull ever found in Europe. This fossil, belonging to the species Dacentrurus armatus, was unearthed at the Están de Colón quarry.

For a long time, Dacentrurus was mainly known from a few scattered bones and armor plates. This new skull, along with over 200 other bones found at the site, is helping scientists redraw the evolutionary map of stegosaurs globally. Sergio Sánchez Fenollosa, a paleontologist at the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, leads the study and states that this fossil reveals new details about the anatomy of Dacentrurus armatus.

Finding a dinosaur skull intact is quite rare due to the fragility of their bones. The skull excavated from Riodeva dates back about 150 million years and preserves parts of the snout, upper jaw, and braincase. The area also yielded bones from at least two individuals, including a juvenile, making this discovery particularly unique. This mixed-age find offers insights into the growth stages of the species.

With the new skull data, researchers analyzed 30 stegosaur species based on 115 traits, leading to significant changes in our understanding of their evolutionary relationships. They propose a new clade called Neostegosauria, which includes larger plated dinosaurs from Africa and Europe during the Middle and Late Jurassic periods, stretching into North America and Asia. This finding emphasizes how certain features, like plated backs and spiked tails, evolved in parallel lineages.

The discovery is a significant dual achievement: studying an exceptional fossil while also proposing a new evolutionary hypothesis. This positions the research as important for the global understanding of stegosaurs, as noted by co-author Alberto Cobos. He emphasized that the quarry holds many more fossils that could enrich our understanding even further.

This skull is crucial, as its design provides insights into the stegosaur’s lifestyle. The shape of the jaw helps indicate dietary preferences, while features in the skull inform researchers about sensory priorities. Preliminary studies suggest that European stegosaurs might have fed differently compared to their North American counterparts, potentially due to varying plant life in their ecosystems.

Beyond stegosaurs, the region of Teruel is rich with diverse dinosaur fossils. Other finds include sauropods and ornithopods, contributing to our understanding of the Iberian ecosystem during the Jurassic. This underscores the importance of regional research, showing that less prominent sites can yield groundbreaking discoveries.

The research team plans to continue studying the skull using advanced technologies like CT scanning and 3-D reconstruction, allowing broader access to the findings. Expect to see the skull displayed at Dinópolis, where it can finally share its story, potentially altering our perceptions of plated dinosaurs.

For more on this discovery, check out the full study published in the journal Vertebrate Zoology.

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