First skeletal evidence of Diplodocus found outside North America, in Spain

Researchers publishing a study this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology say they have found the first skeletal evidence of the Diplodocus dinosaur outside of North America.

They discovered several vertebrae and chevron bones dating back to about 150 million years ago at a site in eastern Spain.

Photos and map of the excavation of the La Tejería site, in Spain. — Photo: Study by Sergio Sánchez Fenollosa, Josué García-Cobeña and Alberto Cobos.

The team from the Dinópolis Foundation, in Teruel, which studies the rich fossil site of La Tejería, in the municipality of El Castellar, reported that the dinosaur is now part of a growing list of giant sauropods found in the region.

Although the long-necked, big-tailed herbivore is one of the world's most recognized dinosaurs, fossilized remains of the animal have so far only been found in North America.

What did the researchers say about the discovery?

The article published on Monday (14) concluded that the discovery represents "one of the most complete diplodocid skeletons in Europe".

According to the study, the systematic analysis of 14 caudal vertebrae and several chevron bones "reveals that the material can be confidently assigned to the genus Diplodocus", one of several genera belonging to the family of diplodocids, within the group of sauropod dinosaurs.

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

Although Diplodocus is known throughout the world, in part thanks to the famous replica skeleton nicknamed "Dippy" that for years greeted visitors at the entrance to the Natural History Museum in London, researchers stressed that "the European fossil record of diplodocids is scarce and fragmentary."

How would dinosaurs have crossed the ocean?

In the time of the dinosaurs, the continents were just beginning to break apart.

In recent decades, scientists have begun to theorize that the proto-Atlantic Ocean still had temporary land bridges, episodic declines in sea level or other transitory means of crossing, which occasionally allowed terrestrial dinosaurs to travel great distances between continents in the process of separation.

Recent fossil discoveries, especially in Spain and Portugal, close to the Atlantic coast, have reinforced this hypothesis. This region was part of a land bridge believed to have connected the Iberian Peninsula to what is now Canada.

The authors state that the discovery "constitutes some of the strongest evidence yet for episodic dispersal events and faunal exchange across the proto-North Atlantic during the Late Kimmeridgian to Early Tithonian interval", a period dated to approximately 150 million years ago.

Another route linked North America to Scandinavia, while a much more southern connection linked what today corresponds to Brazil and Cameroon.

Caudal vertebrae of Diplodocus, from the La tejería site, in Spain. — Photo: Study by Sergio Sánchez-Fenollosa, Josué García-Cobeña and Alberto Cobos.