Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur at Lorignan that roamed the site 150 million years ago and was herbivorous, bipedal and relatively small, the Lorignan Museum, which was involved in the research, said in a statement on Monday.
The new species, named Hesperonyx martinhotomasorum, was identified from the remains of a nearly complete and semi-composite leg discovered during excavations carried out in 2021 in the geological formation of Lorignha, on a rocky outcrop on the beach of Porto Dinheiro.
The result of the work carried out by paleontologists from the Nova Universities of Lisbon, Zaragoza (Spain) and Bonn (Germany), in collaboration with the Museum of Lorignan and the Torres Vedras Natural History Society, is published this Monday in the digital edition. version of the specialized publication “Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology”.
The new species are named “martinho” and “tomas” after Mikael Martinho and Carla Thomas, fossil preparators at the Lourinhain Museum, where the leg remains of “Hesperonyx martinhotomasorum” are on display to the public.
According to researchers, the new dinosaur, due to its characteristics, was quite rare in the Jurassic geological period in Europe.