Portuguese paleontologist Pedro Mocho, from the Instituto Dom Luiz of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (CIÊNCIAS), has discovered a new species of sauropod dinosaur that lived in Cuenca, Spain, 75 million years ago: Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra.
Since 2007, over 12,000 fossils collected during the construction of the Madrid-Levante high-speed train tracks have created a major collection of Upper Cretaceous vertebrates from Europe. Ongoing studies, supported by national projects and the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, have greatly enhanced our understanding of Late Cretaceous ecosystems in southwestern Europe and led to discovering several new species.
This new discovery allowed scientists to identify two distinct lineages of saltasauroids in the same fossil locality for the first time.
Lirainosaurinae is one of these groups, characterized by small—and medium-sized species that mainly evolved in an island ecosystem.
In the Late Cretaceous, Europe was a large archipelago with many islands. Qunkasaura, a sauropod dinosaur, lived in the Iberian Peninsula about 73 million years ago. This suggests that this group of sauropods arrived in the Iberian Peninsula later than other dinosaur groups.
The abundance of large partial skeletons of sauropod dinosaurs is one of the most relevant features of the Lo Hueco fossil record. Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra is notable for being one of Europe’s most complete sauropod skeletons. It includes neck, back, and tail vertebrae, parts of the pelvic girdle, and limb elements.
Its unique features, especially in the tail vertebrae, provide new insights into the Iberian Peninsula’s non-avian dinosaurs, a previously poorly understood group.
The study finds that Qunkasaura belongs to the opisthocoelicaudine saltasaurids, a group of sauropods from the northern hemisphere (Laurasia). In contrast, most Late Cretaceous sauropods in southwestern Europe, like Lohuecotitan pandafilandi from Lo Hueco, are part of Lirainosaurinae, unique to Europe.
The research suggests that Lo Hueco is the only known site where both groups coexisted. It introduced a new group called Lohuecosauria, which includes both lineages. It proposes that these titanosaurs might have originated in the southern continents (Gondwana) before spreading worldwide.
The name Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra has several geographic and cultural references related to the Lo Hueco site. “Qunka” is derived from an old name for the Cuenca and Fuentes area, “Saura” is a nod to the Latin word for lizard and also honors the painter Antonio Saura, and “pintiquiniestra” refers to the giant “Queen Pintiquiniestra” from a novel mentioned in Cervantes’ Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Pedro Mocho, paleontologist at CIÊNCIAS said, “Fortunately, the Lo Hueco deposit also preserves several skeletons of sauropod dinosaurs to be determined, which may correspond to new species and which will help us understand how these animals evolved.”
Journal Reference:
- Mocho, P.; Escaso, F.; Marcos-Fernández, F.; Páramo, A.; Sanz, J. L.; Vidal, D.; Ortega, F. 2024. A Spanish saltasauroid titanosaur reveals Europe as a melting pot of endemic and immigrant sauropods in the Late Cretaceous. Communications Biology. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06653-0
