First skeletal evidence of Diplodocus dinosaur found outside North America

Researchers writing in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology this week say they have found the first skeletal evidence of the Diplodocus dinosaur outside of North America, uncovering various vertebrae and chevron bones dating back around 150 million years at a site in eastern Spain.

The team from the Dinopolis Foundation in Teruel, studying the rich La Tejeria fossil site in the El Castellar municipality, said the dinosaur joined a growing list of giant sauropods found in the area.

Although the long-necked herbivore with its vast tail is one of the world's most recognizable dinosaurs, fossilized remains had until this point only been recovered in North America.

What did the researchers say about the find?

The paper published on Monday concluded that the find was "one of the most complete diplodocid skeletons from Europe."

It said that systematic study and analysis of 14 caudal vertebrae and several chevron bones "reveals that it can be confidently referred to as Diplodocus," one of several genuses in the diplodocid family of sauropod dinosaurs.

"This discovery consists of the first evidence of Diplodocus outside North America (Morrison Formation) and is one of the strongest piece of evidence that supports the exchange of continental faunas between North America and Europe during the Late Jurassic," the authors wrote.

Although the diplodocus is well known worldwide, not least thanks to the famous skeletal cast nicknamed "Dippy" that for years greeted visitors entering the British Natural History Museum, the researchers said that the "European diplodocid fossil record is scarce and fragmentary."

How could dinsoaurs cross an ocean?

During the time of the dinosaurs the continents were only just starting to drift apart. In recent decades scientists have begun to theorize that the proto-Atlantic Ocean still had ephemeral land bridges or episodic sea regressions or some other temporary means of crossing that occassionally enabled land-based dinosaurs to move vast distances between the separating continents.

Recent fossil finds, not least in Spain and Portugal near the Atlantic coast, have been further reinforcing this notion. This is part of a land bridge thought to have connected Iberia to what's now Canada.

The authors said the find "constitutes one of the strongest pieces of evidence of episodic dispersal events and faunal exchanges across the proto-North Atlantic Ocean during the late Kimmeridgian–early Tithonian" period, approximated 150 million years ago.

Another route linked North America with Scandinavia, and one much further south connected what's now Brazil to Cameroon.