''Portellsaurus'' (meaning "Portell Lizard") is a genus of

hadrosauroid Hadrosauroidea is a clade or superfamily of ornithischian dinosaurs that includes the "duck-billed" dinosaurs, or hadrosaurids, and all dinosaurs more closely related to them than to ''Iguanodon''. Their remains have been recovered in Asia, Eu ...

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 ...

from the

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...

Margas de Mirambell Formation of

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 ...

. The genus contains a single species, ''Portellsaurus sosbaynati'', known from a partial right

dentary In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

Discovery and naming

''Portellsaurus'' was discovered in 1998 by Miquel Guardiola, Julián Yuste and Silvia Fabregat in a site near Mas de Curolles. The generic name, ''Portellsaurus'', comes from the

Portell de Morella Portell de Morella is a municipality located in the province of Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' ...

, the town where the holotype was recovered, and the specific name, ''sosbaynati'', refers to Vicente Sos Baynat, a Spanish geologist who was the first scientist honored by

Universitat Jaume I Jaume I University ( es, Universidad Jaime I, ca-valencia, Universitat Jaume I, UJI; ) is a university in the city of Castelló de la Plana, Valencian Community, Spain. It was founded in 1991, and it has approximately 14,000 students. The camp ...

as "Doctor Honoris Causa".

Description

''Portellsaurus'' is known from an almost complete right dentary, MQ98-II-1, which is stored at the Colección Museográfica de Cinctorres in Castellón. ''Portellsaurus'' can be distinguished from other styracosternans through the possession of two unique features: the absence of a bulge along the ventral margin directly below the base of the coronoid process, convergently found in ''

Altirhinus ''Altirhinus'' (; "high snout") is a genus of hadrosauroid ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of Mongolia. History of discovery All known specimens of ''Altirhinus'' were recovered in 1981 during collaborative expeditions organ ...

'' and '' Sirindhorna,'' and the presence of a deep oval cavity on the middle of the lower jaw's adductor fossa below the eleventh-twelfth tooth position. This cavity internally connects with the last

nutrient foramina The nutrient artery (arteria nutricia, or medullary), usually accompanied by one or two veins, enters the bone through the nutrient foramen, runs obliquely through the cortex, sends branches upward and downward to the bone marrow, which ramify in ...

in the dentary.

Classification

Santos-Cubedo ''et al.'' performed a phylogenetic analysis based on the dataset used in the redescription of '' Iguanodon galvensis'' and recovered ''Portellsaurus'' as a derived non-hadrosauromorph hadrosauroid. Below is the 50% majority consensus tree from the analysis:

References

Hadrosaurs Barremian life Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Cretaceous Spain Fossil taxa described in 2021 Ornithischian genera {{Ornithopod-stub