Single Vertebra Hints at Oldest Known Iberian Dinosaur

” This is the very first Triassic dinosaur stays from the Iberian Peninsula, and the earliest dinosaur presently understood from this area,”stated Universidade Nova de Lisboa scientists Dr. Rui Tiago dos Santos-Matos and Dr. Octávio Mateus.

The specimen is a single vertebral centrum, the primary body of a back vertebra, determining 37 mm (about 1.5 inches).

Identified NOVAFCT-DCT-5562, the bone was discovered near Penina, in the town of Loulé in the Algarve.

It originated from rocks of the Silves Group that paleontologists date to the Late Triassic date, more than 220 million years back.

Previously, the Triassic animals of Portugal was understood primarily from marine or semi-aquatic animals, consisting of big amphibians, phytosaurs, placodonts and fish.

NOVAFCT-DCT-5562 represents the very first completely land-dwelling vertebrate explained from these deposits.

“Until now, no dinosaur bone components have actually been explained from the Triassic of Portugal, although there are some footprints credited to this clade,” the researchers stated.

To recognize the fossil, they compared it with vertebrae of numerous early dinosaurs and their family members.

They then ran evolutionary analyses utilizing a broadened dataset that consists of 13 brand-new characters they designed to explain the back vertebrae of early theropods.

The analyses positioned the specimen amongst the neotheropods, a branch of early predatory dinosaurs, and as the closest relative of Sarcosaurus woodia types understood from the Early Jurassic rocks of England.

If this positioning holds, the bone would likewise be amongst the earliest neotheropods understood anywhere.

“The close relationship in between Sarcosaurus and NOVAFCT-DCT-5562 would press back the family tree causing Sarcosaurus from the most recent Late Triassic to the early/middle Late Triassic,” the authors stated.

The specimen is at least 20 million years older than Sarcosaurusso the 2 are extremely not likely to be the very same types or genus.

The bone has no functions distinct to it, and is too fragmentary to designate to a recognized types or to call a brand-new one.

“NOVA-FCT-DCT-5562 might represent an unidentified theropod types, nevertheless it does not have autapomorphies and the remains are too fragmentary to credit to any recognized types or to set up a brand-new one,” the paleontologists concluded.

The research study was released this month in the journal Fossil Imprint

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Rui Tiago Santos-Matos & & Octávio Mateus. 2026. Theropod vertebra from the Late Triassic of Algarve, Portugal– proof of the earliest Iberian dinosaur. Fossil Imprint 82 (1 ): 98-109; doi: 10.37520/ fi.2026.006