Galve, Spain | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Coordinates: 40°39′N0°52′W / 40.650°N 0.867°W | |
| Country | Spain |
| Autonomous community | Aragon |
| Province | Teruel |
| Municipality | Galve |
| Area | |
| • Total | 61.90 km2 (23.90 sq mi) |
| Population (2018) [1] | |
| • Total | 161 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Galve is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 145 inhabitants. There is an important paleontological site.
The Galve area is a productive area full of fossil sites well known for its faunal assemblage of dinosaurs, notably the sauropods and mammals. This region is also noted for its lissamphibians, lizards and turtles, as well as diverse multituberculates, dryolestoids, and spalacotheriids.
Spanish paleontologists have worked this site for years, including José Ignacio Canudo, José Luis Barco, Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, and José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca.
The Galve region sediments date back to the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, with five formations ranging in age from Tithonian to Aptian listed below:
Theropods (spinosaurines), sauropods, and ornithischians have been reported from the Galve region. Fossil teeth belonging to baryonychines, allosauroids, dromaeosaurids and indeterminable coelurosaurs have also been recovered at some of the Galve sites. Those indeterminable coelurosaur teeth are from the Galve outcrops of the El Castellar Formation, and bear some avian resemblance.[ citation needed ]
Sauropods from the Galve region include Aragosaurus ischiaticus , Galveosaurus herreroi , and Turiasaurus riodevensis . Isolated remains have also been referred to camarasaurids, brachiosaurids, and diplodocids. Aragosaurus has been identified as a camarasaurid, a titanosaur, and recently, a eusauropod of uncertain affinities. Galveosaurus was originally described as a cetiosaurid but later argued to be a basal macronarian, [2] and Turiasaurus was argued by its describers to represent a new clade close to neosauropod ancestry, Turiasauria. [3] A new study also concluded that Galveosaurus was a turiasaur, and not a cetiosaurid or macronarian.
Galveosaurus was published in 2005 by Barbara,[ citation needed ] naming it Galveosaurus herreroi, in the journal Zootaxa. [4] Late that same year, a team led by José Luis Barco published a less formal article in the magazine Naturaleza Aragonesa (Barco et al. 2005),[ citation needed ] and here they named the same taxon Galvesaurus herreroi(a difference of one letter).
A Camarasaurus -like taxon is represented only by teeth from the El Castellar Formation. These teeth bear a strong resemblance to the teeth of Camarasaurus than the teeth of any other sauropod. However, their younger age (Hauterivian-Barremian) makes them substantially younger than Camarasaurus, and hence likely to belong to a separate taxon.
Heterodontosaurids have also been attributed to the Galve region.[ citation needed ] Heterodontosaurids are a mostly Early Jurassic clade, best known from southern Africa.
Numerous crocodilians have been found in Galve. One particularly notable find is an outcrop of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation at El Cantalar that preserves a trackway produced by a crocodyliform that measures approximately 12 meters in length, comparable in size to Deinosuchus , Sarcosuchus , and the unique Stomatosuchus . Furthermore, teeth, osteoderms, and bones belonging to atoposaurids, Bernissartia , and possibly pholidosaurids and teleosaurids are all known from the Galve region, illustrating the amount of crocodilian material preserved at the site. [5]
Pterosaur teeth have also been uncovered in the Galve region, although more substantial remains are rare. However, there are enough remains at the sites to determine that the Galve region hosted a wide variety of pterosaurs at one point. [5] Pterosaurs that have been discovered at this site include ornithocheirids, dsungaripterids, possible gnathosaurines, and istiodactylids.
Camarasaurus was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs and is the most common North American sauropod fossil. Its fossil remains have been found in the Morrison Formation, dating to the Late Jurassic epoch, between 155 and 145 million years ago.
Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Macronarians are named after the large diameter of the nasal opening of their skull, known as the external naris, which exceeded the size of the orbit, the skull opening where the eye is located. Fossil evidence suggests that macronarian dinosaurs lived from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) through the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). Macronarians have been found globally, including discoveries in Argentina, the United States, Portugal, China, and Tanzania. Like other sauropods, they are known to have inhabited primarily terrestrial areas, and little evidence exists to suggest that they spent much time in coastal environments. Macronarians are diagnosed through their distinct characters on their skulls, as well as appendicular and vertebral characters. Macronaria is composed of several subclades and families notably including Camarasauridae and Titanosauriformes, among several others. Titanosauriforms are particularly well known for being some of the largest terrestrial animals to ever exist.
Aragosaurus was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of Galve, province of Teruel, in the autonomous territory of Aragón, Spain. It was deposited in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation.
Trimucrodon is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Lourinhã Formation of Portugal. The type, and currently only, species is T. cuneatus.
Neosodon was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Sables et Gres a Trigonia gibbosa of Pas-de-Calais department, France. It has never been formally given a species name, but is often seen as N. praecursor, which actually comes from a different animal. Often in the past, it had been assigned to the wastebasket taxon Pelorosaurus, but restudy has suggested that it could be related to Turiasaurus, a roughly contemporaneous giant Spanish sauropod. It is only known from six teeth.
Crusafontia is an extinct genus of mammal from the Cretaceous Camarillas, El Castellar and La Huérguina Formations of Spain. The name of the animal was given in honour of the Spanish paleontologist Miquel Crusafont Pairó.
Galvesaurus, or Galveosaurus, is a genus of brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period. Fossils of the only known species, G. herreroi, were found in Galve, Spain, hence its generic name, "Galve lizard". The specific name G. herreroi honours the discoverer, José María Herrero.
Moabosaurus is a genus of turiasaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, United States.
Turiasaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaurs. It is known from a single fossil specimen representing the species Turiasaurus riodevensis, found in the Kimmeridgian Villar del Arzobispo Formation of Teruel, Spain.
Turiasauria is an unranked clade of basal sauropod dinosaurs known from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deposits in Europe, North America, and Africa.
Camarasauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs. Among sauropods, camarasaurids are small to medium-sized, with relatively short necks. They are visually identifiable by a short skull with large nares, and broad, spatulate teeth filling a thick jaw. Based on cervical vertebrae and cervical rib biomechanics, camarasaurids most likely moved their necks in a vertical, rather than horizontal, sweeping motion, in contrast to most diplodocids.
The Camarillas Formation is a geological formation in the Teruel Province of Aragón, Spain whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. The sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates of the formation, that due to syn-sedimentary faulting varies greatly in thickness from 300 to 800 metres, were deposited in fluvial, deltaic and lacustrine environments.
Galverpeton is an extinct genus of prehistoric salamander. It lived during the Barremian-Aptian stages in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Western Europe. The type species, Galverpeton ibericum, was described by Estes and Sanchíz in 1982. It was found in the Castellar Formation, part of the Galve fossil assemblage. The fossil is in the Institut Paleontologic Miquel Crusafont, Sabadell.
The Calizas y margas de Xert Formation or Xert Formation is an Early Cretaceous geologic formation of the Maestrazgo and Galve Basins in central-eastern Spain. The formation is described as a coastal claystone, with indications of a transgressive episode, marked by the transition from marsh facies, with little marine influence, to marine platform facies evidenced by abundant marine invertebrates.
The Villar del Arzobispo Formation is a Late Jurassic to possibly Early Cretaceous geologic formation in eastern Spain. It is equivalent in age to the Lourinhã Formation of Portugal. It was originally thought to date from the Late Tithonian-Middle Berriasian, but more recent work suggests a Kimmeridigan-Late Tithonian, possibly dating to the Early Berriasian in some areas. The Villar del Arzobispo Formation's age in the area of Riodeva in Spain has been dated based on stratigraphic correlations as middle-upper Tithonian, approximately 145-141 million years old. In the area of Galve, the formation potentially dates into the earliest Cretaceous.
Laurasiformes is an extinct clade of sauropod dinosaurs from the late Early Cretaceous of Europe, North and South America. It was defined in 2009 by the Spanish paleontologist Rafael Royo-Torres as a clade containing sauropods more closely related to Tastavinsaurus than to Saltasaurus. Genera purported to form part of this clade include Aragosaurus, Galvesaurus, Phuwiangosaurus, Venenosaurus, Cedarosaurus, Tehuelchesaurus, Sonorasaurus and Tastavinsaurus.
Gideonmantellia is an extinct genus of basal ornithopod dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous Camarillas Formation of Galve, Province of Teruel, Spain. It contains a single species, Gideonmantellia amosanjuanae.
The Alacón Formation is a geologic formation in Spain in which dinosaur tracks attributed to sauropods and Iguanodontidae have been found.
Guegoolithus is an oogenus of fossil egg from the early Cretaceous of Spain. It is classified in the oofamily Spheroolithidae, and was probably laid by an ornithopod dinosaur.
Oblitosaurus is a genus of ankylopollexian ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Villar del Arzobispo Formation of Spain. The type species is Oblitosaurus bunnueli.
