First dinosaur and turtle remains from the latest Cretaceous shallow marine deposits of Albaina (Laño quarry, Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

We report here on new vertebrate fossils from the latest Cretaceous of Albaina (Laño quarry, Condado de Treviño), northern Iberian Peninsula. They consist of an incomplete hadrosauroid femur and two partial plates of turtles, one belonging to a Pleurodira (Bothremydidae), the other one to an indeterminate taxon, probably corresponding to a Pan-Cryptodira. They are the first dinosaur and turtle remains found in the Late Maastrichtian sublittoral beds of Albaina. Other components of this shallow marine vertebrate fauna are selachians (sharks, rays), actinopterygians (pycnodonts, teleosts) and marine reptiles (mosasaurids, plesiosaurs). The Albaina femur is one of the few hadrosauroid remains from the Late Maastrichtian of Europe found in marine environments, and the first one described from this kind of deposits in the Iberian Peninsula. The histological structure of the bone indicates that it belongs to an immature individual of small size.