New herbivorous dinosaur fossils have been discovered about two kilometers north of Cape Espichel, including what could be a new species of sauropod dinosaur, the Portuguese Center for Geohistory and Prehistory (CPGP) said this Friday.
A statement from the institution explains that a set of sauropod dinosaur fossils dating back to the Lower Cretaceous period (about 129 million years) were found in different layers at the base of the geological formation.
The remains belong to different specimens of sauropod dinosaurs (giant long-necked and long-tailed dinosaurs), with most of them belonging to sauropods from the titanosaur group, which was very diverse during the Cretaceous period.
The CPGP statement highlights the discovery of “two vertebrae at the anatomical junction of a small individual” that may “belong to a new species of these dinosaurs, a new dinosaur of small size compared to its giant relatives.”
Dinosaurs lived close to a coastal environment (lagoon) frequented by various vertebrate species (crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles and other dinosaurs) that used the region as a habitat or passageway between feeding areas, the CPGP said in a communiqué. .
The published results are the result of the work of a team of Portuguese and Brazilian paleontologists and geologists led by paleontologist Silverio Figueiredo.