''Lourinhanosaurus'' (meaning "Lourinhã lizard") was a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
theropod dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
that lived during the Late
Jurassic Period (
Kimmeridgian/
Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the K ...
) in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. It is one of many large predators discovered at the
Lourinhã Formation and probably competed with coeval ''
Torvosaurus gurneyi
''Torvosaurus'' () is a genus of carnivorous megalosaurid Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 148 million years ago during the late Middle Jurassic, Middle and Late Jurassic Period (geology), period (Callovian to Tithoni ...
'', ''
Allosaurus europaeus'', and ''
Ceratosaurus''.
Discovery and naming
![Lourinhanosaurus antunesi baby](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Lourinhanosaurus_antunesi_baby.jpg)
Its first remains were found at
Peralta, near
Lourinhã
Lourinhã () is a municipality in the District of Lisbon, in the Oeste Subregion of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 25,735, in an area of 147.17 km². The seat of the municipality is the town of Lourinhã, with a population of 8,800 inhab ...
, Portugal in 1982, but were not described until 1998, by Portuguese paleontologist
Octávio Mateus
Octávio Mateus (born 1975) is a Portuguese dinosaur paleontologist and biologist Professor of Paleontology at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He graduated in Universidade de Évora and received his PhD at U ...
. Its
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
(and to date only) species is ''L. antunesi'', in honour of Portuguese paleontologist
Miguel Telles Antunes
Dr. Miguel Telles Antunes (born 11 January 1937; Lisbon) is a famous Portuguese academic, specializing in paleontology, zooarchaeology, and geology. Antunes is a ranking member of various institutions, including the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, N ...
.
To date, the most complete specimen of ''L. antunesi'' found is a partial
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
. The
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
, ML 370, consists of the remains of six cervical vertebrae with six ribs, five sacral vertebrae with ribs, 14 caudal vertebrae, eight chevrons, both femora, right tibia and fibula, one metatarsus, two ilia and both pubes and ischia, as well as an associated 32
gastroliths
A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In oth ...
. A femur (ML 555) found at Porto das Barcas (
Lourinhã Formation; Late Jurassic) has also been referred to ''L. antunesi''.
Besides these specimens, around 100
eggs (specimen number ML 565), some of them containing embryonic bones and skin, have been found in 1993 at the nearby beach of
Paimogo. These were in 2001 assigned to ''L. antunesi''.
Both the skeleton and the eggs are on display at
Museu da Lourinhã
Museu da Lourinhã is a museum in the town of Lourinhã, west Portugal. It was founded in 1984 by GEAL - Grupo de Etnologia e Arqueologia da Lourinhã (Lourinhã's Group of Ethnology and Archeology). The president of the Direction Board is Lubélia ...
.
Paleobiology
![Lourinhanosaurus antunesi reconstruction](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Lourinhanosaurus_antunesi_reconstruction.png)
''L. antunesi'' was rather large. The individual found was a sub-adult, measuring some 4.5 m in length and weighing around 160 kg. Histology shows that the holotype specimen was between 14 and 17 years old.
Though gastroliths have been found in other theropods since the description of ''L. antunesi'', this was the first theropod dinosaur for which this kind of remains have been assigned. It was concluded during the description that these stones belonged to the animal, and were not swallowed while eating an herbivorous dinosaur.
Dinosaur eggs and embryos, believed to be those of ''Lourinhanosaurus'', have also been discovered; a nest containing more than 100 eggs, some with well-preserved embryos, was announced in 1998.
[Mateus, O., Walen, A., and Antunes, M.T. (2006)]
"The Large Theropod Fauna of the Lourinha Formation (Portugal) and its Similarity to the Morrison Formation, With a Description of a New Species of ''Allosaurus''"
in: Foster, J.R. and Lucas, S. G. R.M., eds., ''Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin'' 36.
Classification
The relationships of ''Lourinhanosaurus'' to other theropods have been uncertain, and no firm consensus has been reached as to its classification. Initially regarded as a primitive member of
Allosauroidea, it was later discussed as being closely related to
Sinraptoridae
Metriacanthosauridae is an extinct family of allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. When broken down into its Greek roots, it means "moderately-spined lizards". The family is split into two ...
, a more inclusive clade within Allosauroidea. Recently, some researchers have been favourable to the idea that ''L. antunesi'' is not even an allosauroid, but in fact a member of
Megalosauroidea, a more primitive group of
tetanuran theropods. Benson ''et al.'' (2010) found it and ''
Poekilopleuron'' to belong to Sinraptoridae.
[Supporting Information]
/ref> Carrano ''et al.'' (2012) found it to be a coelurosaur
Coelurosauria (; from Greek, meaning "hollow tailed lizards") is the clade containing all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds than to carnosaurs.
Coelurosauria is a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs that includes compsognathids, tyrann ...
. A 2022 study mentions it as a "putative metriacanthosaurid".
References
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*
External links
Dinosaurs of Lourinhã, Portugal
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18578547, from2=Q1655776
Prehistoric tetanurans
Kimmeridgian life
Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Europe
Jurassic Portugal
Fossils of Portugal
Fossil taxa described in 1998
Taxa named by Octávio Mateus