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The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain

The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain
The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain
Approximately 40% of a skeleton including cranial and postcranial remains representing a new genus and species of basal neotheropod dinosaur is described. It was collected from fallen blocks from a sea cliff that exposes Late Triassic and Early Jurassic marine and quasi marine strata on the south Wales coast near the city of Cardiff. Matrix comparisons indicate that the specimen is from the lithological Jurassic part of the sequence, below the first occurrence of the index ammonite Psiloceras planorbis and above the last occurrence of the Rhaetian conodont Chirodella verecunda. Associated fauna of echinoderms and bivalves indicate that the specimen had drifted out to sea, presumably from the nearby Welsh Massif and associated islands (St David’s Archipelago). Its occurrence close to the base of the Blue Lias Formation (Lower Jurassic, Hettangian) makes it the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur and it represents the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales. A cladistic analysis indicates basal neotheropodan affinities, but the specimen retains plesiomorphic characters which it shares with Tawa and Daemonosaurus.
1932-6203
Martill, David M.
10dffe03-9f57-435a-abb6-71185b6f277e
Vidovic, Steven U.
abba74b7-4c91-4f08-b8f1-4d9e836a43e4
Howells, Cindy
fff1038b-4af4-4eec-ace8-31c3c7c204a9
Nudds, John R.
9812a4b5-e9e9-4c9d-8e9c-696edbc9b9f9
Joger, Ulrich
72d5a929-0736-443e-be97-7346840a0546
Martill, David M.
10dffe03-9f57-435a-abb6-71185b6f277e
Vidovic, Steven U.
abba74b7-4c91-4f08-b8f1-4d9e836a43e4
Howells, Cindy
fff1038b-4af4-4eec-ace8-31c3c7c204a9
Nudds, John R.
9812a4b5-e9e9-4c9d-8e9c-696edbc9b9f9
Joger, Ulrich
72d5a929-0736-443e-be97-7346840a0546

Martill, David M., Vidovic, Steven U., Howells, Cindy and Nudds, John R. , Joger, Ulrich (ed.) (2016) The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain. PLoS ONE, 11 (1), [e0145713]. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145713).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Approximately 40% of a skeleton including cranial and postcranial remains representing a new genus and species of basal neotheropod dinosaur is described. It was collected from fallen blocks from a sea cliff that exposes Late Triassic and Early Jurassic marine and quasi marine strata on the south Wales coast near the city of Cardiff. Matrix comparisons indicate that the specimen is from the lithological Jurassic part of the sequence, below the first occurrence of the index ammonite Psiloceras planorbis and above the last occurrence of the Rhaetian conodont Chirodella verecunda. Associated fauna of echinoderms and bivalves indicate that the specimen had drifted out to sea, presumably from the nearby Welsh Massif and associated islands (St David’s Archipelago). Its occurrence close to the base of the Blue Lias Formation (Lower Jurassic, Hettangian) makes it the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur and it represents the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales. A cladistic analysis indicates basal neotheropodan affinities, but the specimen retains plesiomorphic characters which it shares with Tawa and Daemonosaurus.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 December 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 January 2016
Published date: 20 January 2016

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 423001
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/423001
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: cffc6f3e-264e-4c8b-a5dd-c266242e6ce7
ORCID for Steven U. Vidovic: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4726-8018

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Date deposited: 09 Aug 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:37

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Contributors

Author: David M. Martill
Author: Steven U. Vidovic ORCID iD
Author: Cindy Howells
Author: John R. Nudds
Editor: Ulrich Joger

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