Morelladon
Name:
Morelladon
(Morella tooth).
Phonetic: Mo-rel-la-don.
Named By: Jos� Miguel Gasulla, Fernando Escaso,
Iv�n Narv�ez, Francisco Ortega & Jos� Luis Sanz - 2015.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda.
Species: M. beltrani (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Roughly estimated at about 6 meters long.
Known locations: Spain - Arcillas de Morella
Formation.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial
skeleton, mostly of vertebrae but also including partial ribs,
sacrum and partial tibia.
First
discovered in 2013, and named in 2015, Morelladon
made
headlines towards the end of 2015 as a rare example of a sailbacked
dinosaur. Though dubbed a sailback, this sail was likely more like
a hump as the neural spines of the vertebrae that supported it were
very robust. These are way beyond what would be needed to support a
thin skin sail, and so Morelladon probably had
a hump that ran
down the length of much of the body. This hump was possibly for fat
storage that may have allowed Morelladon to survive
times of drought,
though it may have also served a display purpose, possibly for
recognising members of the same species or even attracting a mate.
Morelladon
is not the first large ornithopod to have had a hump like sail growing
on its back. Another dinosaur called Ouranosaurusis
from Africa
also known to have had such a feature, while possibly living slightly
later in the early Cretaceous. This may help portray a picture of
Europe and North Africa having similar ecosystems during the early
Cretaceous given that a pattern of similar dinosaurs in both areas is
emerging. Aside from hump backed ornithopods, these include similar
types of sauropod
dinosaurs, stegosaurs
to even spinosaurid
dinosaurs
with genera such as Baryonyx
known from Western Europe, to
Suchomimus
in North Africa.
Further reading
- A New Sail-Backed Styracosternan (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda)
from the Early Cretaceous of Morella, Spain. - PLoS ONE 10
(12): e0144167. - Jos� Miguel Gasulla, Fernando Escaso,
Iv�n Narv�ez, Francisco Ortega & Jos� Luis Sanz -
2015.
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