Abstract
Several vertebrae of a sauropterygian specimen have been recovered in Fuencaliente de Medinaceli (Soria Province, Castilla y Leon, Spain). The remains come from Middle–Upper Triassic Muschelkalk Facies. This finding represents the first documented evidence of a Triassic tetrapod in Castilla y Leon. The vertebrae belong to Nothosaurus , a sauropterygian genus found in Europe, Middle East, North of Africa and China. This genus is poorly-known in the Iberian record. The new remains constitute the first evidence of the species Nothosaurus giganteus , or a related taxon, in the Iberian Peninsula. This study reveals the occurrence of at least two species of the sauropterygian Nothosaurus in the Spanish record.
Highlights
Remains of Spanish Triassic sauropterygians have been found at several localities from the eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula, and at the Balearic Islands
All the vertebral elements found in the upper Muschelkalk Facies of Fuencaliente de Medinaceli belong to a cervico–dorsal series of a single individual, preserved in several blocks
The members of Sauropterygia presents double–headed cervical ribs contacting with the parapophyses in the cervical centra, and with the diapophyses in the cervical neural arches
Summary
Remains of Spanish Triassic sauropterygians have been found at several localities from the eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula, and at the Balearic Islands These elements, most of them being isolated or fragmentary remains, were recovered from Aragon (Kuhn-Schnyder, 1966; Lapparent, 1966; Sanz, 1976; Rubio et al, 2003; Miguel Chaves et al, 2015), Andalusia (Sanz, 1991; Alafont, 1992; Niemeyer, 2002; Reolid et al, 2013); Balearic Islands (Bauza Rullán, 1955); Castilla–La Mancha For sampling abbreviations: UPUAM, Unidad de Paleontología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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