''Morelladon'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of herbivorous

styracosterna Ankylopollexia is an extinct clade of ornithischian dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous. It is a derived clade of iguanodontian ornithopods and contains the subgroup Styracosterna. The name stems from the Greek word ...

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world ...

dinosaur. It lived during the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, around 130 million years ago.

Discovery

In 2013, teams of the ''

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia The National Distance Education University, known in Spanish as ''Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia'' (UNED), is a public research university of national scope. The university was founded in 1972 under the Ministry of Universities. ...

'' (UNED) and the ''

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as simply la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 alongside the Autonomous Universi ...

'', at the ''Mas de Sabaté'' (CMP-MS) site of the ''Mas de la Parreta'' quarry at Morella discovered a skeleton of a euornithopod. The fossil was prepared by Juan Miguel Soler, Miguel Ángel Aguilar, Jesús Royo and Manuel Domingo García. In 2015, the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

''Morelladon beltrani'' was named and described by José Miguel Gasulla, Fernando Escaso, Iván Narváez, Francisco Ortega and José Luis Sanz. The generic name combines a reference to Morella with Greek ὀδών, ''odoon'', "tooth". The specific name honours Victor Beltrán, the owner of the ''Vega del Moll S.A. Company'' exploiting the quarries, for his cooperation with the scientific research. 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 ...

, CMP-MS-03, was found in a layer of the

Arcillas de Morella Formation The Arcillas de Morella Formation is a geological formation in Spain whose strata date back to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, David B; et a ...

traditionally dated to the early

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

, but according to recent

palynological Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and ''-logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposit ...

research perhaps dating from the late

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is preceded ...

. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It contains a right dentary tooth, seven dorsal vertebrae, fragments of the neural spines of dorsal vertebrae, two rib pieces, a sacrum, two chevrons, the ilia, incomplete pubes and ischia and a right tibia. ''Morelladon'' was one of eighteen dinosaur taxa from 2015 to be described in open access or free-to-read journals.

Description

''Morelladon'' is a medium-sized euornithopod. Its body length has been estimated at six metres, its weight at two tonnes. The describing authors established some distinguishing traits. These were all

autapomorphies In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to t ...

, unique derived qualities. The longest neural spines reach a height of at least 4.3 times the height of their vertebral bodies. The rear middle back vertebrae have a very high and deep depression between their rear articular processes and the base of the neural spine, 2.6 times higher than that base is long, measured from the front to the rear. The rib of the dorsosacral vertebra is fused with the sacral yoke. With the second and third sacral vertebrae the keel at the underside is limited to the front part of the vertebral body. With the fourth sacral vertebra the keel has a similar position but is low and wide. The facets for the dorsosacral and first sacral ribs are located close to each other near the top edge of the ilium, higher than the facets of the other sacral ribs. The ridge on the inner side of the rear blade of the ilium runs obliquely to behind and above, forming a slightly swollen bone shelf, directed to the inside, on the rear part of the rear blade. The lower end of the ischium has a D-shaped cross-section due to an extension on the outer side.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21787543 Iguanodonts Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Barremian life Cretaceous Spain Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 2015 Taxa named by Fernando Novas Ornithischian genera