Late Jurassic dinosaurs from Asturias, Spain: Implications for the diversity and biogeography of European Late Jurassic dinosaur faunas

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The Jurassic is an important time for our understanding of dinosaur evolution, as most important lineages originated and radiated during that period. A recent biogeographic analysis indicates that the Late Jurassic was decisive for dinosaur distribution in the Cretaceous, and that Europe might have been an important "turntable" at that time. European dinosaur faunas are so far mainly known from finds from the Lusitanian Basin in Portugal and isolated occurrences in France, England and Germany. The Portugese faunas seem to be very similar to that of the North American Morrison Formation, whereas there seems to be at least some Asian influence in the central and northern European faunas.The Late Jurassic Lastres Formation crops out in the northern Spanish province of Asturias and has already yielded fragmentary dinosaur remains. Recently, two articulated dinosaur remains were found in this unit, an ornithischian (probably ornithopod) and a saurischian (probably sauropodomorph). These specimens have a great potential to imporve our understanding of European dinosaur faunas, and their preparation and scientific study is thus the subject of this proposal.