Ontogeny and taxonomy of the hadrosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) remains from Basturs Poble bonebed (late early Maastrichtian, Tremp Syncline, Spain)

Víctor Fondevilla,Meike Köhler,Àngel Galobart,Rodrigo Gaete,Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia,Blanca Moncunill-Solé,Phil R Bell

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0206287

Abstract

The lower Maastrichtian site of Basturs Poble (southern Pyrenees, Spain) is the first hadrosaur bonebed reported from Europe. It is an accumulation of disarticulated lambeosaurine skeletal elements, possibly belonging to Pararhabdodon isonensis. The sample shows high intraspecific morphological variability among many skeletal elements, suggesting the need for caution in choosing characters for phylogenetic analyses. Juvenile to adult individuals are represented in the sample, while hatchling remains are absent. Bone histology reveals that juveniles are over-represented and that the youngest individuals represented by tibia specimens were two years old. Adult individuals, with tibiae 550–600 mm long, were 14–15 years old when they died. However, individual variation in tibia length at skeletal maturity occurs within the sample, so individual maturity cannot be assumed on the basis of bone size alone. The Basturs Poble bonebed occurs within the upper part of the C31r magnetochron. Thus, lambeosaurine hadrosaurids were already present and abundant in the Ibero-Armorica Island at the end of the early Maastrichtian and P. isonensis spans the upper part of the lower Maastrichtian to the upper part of the upper Maastrichtian (upper part of C31r-lower part of C29r).

Highlights

During the latest Cretaceous, hadrosaurid hadrosauroids were the dominant herbivorous dinosaurs of the Asian and North American landmasses [1]
Europe at that time was an archipelago of comparatively small islands that was populated by both hadrosaurids and the more primitive non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids
We identified the perimeters of the periosteum and medullary cavity, the growth cycles/ lines of arrested growth (LAG) and the remodeled areas

Summary

Introduction

During the latest Cretaceous (the Campanian and Maastrichtian Ages, 83.6–66 Ma), hadrosaurid hadrosauroids were the dominant herbivorous dinosaurs of the Asian and North American landmasses [1]. Europe at that time was an archipelago of comparatively small islands that was populated by both hadrosaurids and the more primitive non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids (the latter including Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus from Romania and Tethyshadros insularis from Italy; [2]). European hadrosauroid remains are reported from the uppermost Cretaceous. The Basturs Poble hadrosaur bonebed: Ontogeny and taxonomy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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