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Título
A new primitive Neornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic of Patagonia with gut contents
Autor(es)
Clasificación UNESCO
2506 Geología
2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados
2416.04 Paleontología de las Plantas
Fecha de publicación
2017
Editor
Nature
Resumen
We describe a new species of an ornithischian dinosaur, Isaberrysaura mollensis gen. et sp. nov. The specimen, consisting in an almost complete skull and incomplete postcranium was collected from the marine-deltaic deposits of the Los Molles Formation (Toarcian-Bajocian), being the first reported dinosaur for this unit, one of the oldest from Neuquén Basin, and the first neornithischian dinosaur known from the Jurassic of South America. Despite showing a general stegosaurian appearance, the extensive phylogenetic analysis carried out depicts Isaberrysaura mollensis gen. et sp. nov. as a basal ornithopod, suggesting that both Thyreophora and neornithischians could have achieved significant convergent features. The specimen was preserved articulated and with some of its gut content place in the middle-posterior part of the thoracic cavity. Such stomach content was identified as seeds, most of them belonging to the Cycadales group. This finding reveals a possible and unexpected role of this ornithischian species as seed-dispersal agent.
Descripción
Supplementary information accompanies this paper at http://www.nature.com/srep
URI
DOI
10.1038/SREP42778
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