A new spinosaurid theropod (Dinosauria: Megalosauroidea) from the upper Barremian of Vallibona, Spain: Implications for spinosaurid diversity in the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

A new medium-sized theropod dinosaur from the Arcillas de Morella Formation (upper Barremian) in Vallibona (Castellón, Spain) is described based on a partial skeleton. Vallibonavenatrix cani, gen. et sp. nov., is diagnosed by five autapomorphies: moderately high dorsal neural spines relative to the centrum height, the presence of deep pleurocoelous fossae and pneumatic foramina in the sacral vertebrae, a strongly pneumatic ilium with large internal cameras, the presence of a broad and flat platform on the ventromedial surface of the postacetabular blade of the ilium, and the strong ventral torsion of the ischium diaphysis. Phylogenetic analysis recovered Vallibonavenatrix cani as a spinosaurid megalosauroid and revealed that the new Iberian form is more closely related to Gondwanan spinosaurines, such as Spinosaurus, Irritator or Angaturama and the Asian taxon Ichthyovenator than it is to its synchronic contemporary European taxon Baryonyx walkeri. The Gondwanan or Asian affinities of Vallibonavenatrix indicate a complex palaeobiogeographic pattern and may be interpreted simultaneously as evidence for contact between Europe and North Africa and between Europe and Asia before the Aptian. This specimen is currently the most complete evidence of a spinosaurid theropod known in the fossil record of the Iberian Peninsula.