Theropod vertebra from the Late Triassic of Algarve, Portugal – evidence of the oldest Iberian dinosaur

Abstract

The vertebrate fauna of the Late Triassic of Portugal has been poorly understood until recently, when new studies reported a rich environment shared by aquatic fauna, such as metoposaurids, mastodonsaurids, placodonts, phytosaurs and fishes. However, no fully non-aquatic vertebrates were known until now. A dorsal vertebra centrum (NOVA-FCT-DCT-5562) was recently found from the Triassic of the Silves Group (AB2 Unit) in Penina, Loulé Municipality, ascribed to the oldest dinosaur ever found in the Iberian Peninsula. Comparative anatomic and phylogenetic analyses were performed, using an updated matrix focused on early theropods, with 13 new characters, and tested with both equal and implied weights. The results place the material within Neotheropoda, one of the earliest specimens of the clade, as the sister group of the Early Jurassic Sarcosaurus from England. NOVA-FCT-DCT-5562 may represent an unknown theropod species, however it lacks autapomorphies and the remains are too fragmentary to attribute to any known species or to erect a new one.