It was part of an 80-million-year-old herd of duck-billed dinosaurs that lived in a unique ecosystem on the shores of the ancient Tethys ocean
For the first time in Italy a real dinosaur field was found, consisting of a herd of at least seven specimens, probably eleven. The exceptional discovery took place in Villaggio del Pescatore in Duino-Aurisina, a few kilometers from Trieste. It is about the species Tethyshadros insularis, dating back to about 80 million years ago, with numerous skeletons in perfect condition. Among these there is a specimen that has been nicknamed Bruno, which represents the largest and most complete dinosaur ever found in Italy.
The discovery
The discovery was reported in Scientific Reports by an international research group. The finds can be admired at the Civic Museum of Natural History of Trieste, granted in deposit by the Ministry of Culture. Only a small dinosaur, nicknamed Antonio, had come to light nearly 30 years ago at the same site and dated 70 million years ago. The small size had suggested that T. insularis could be a dwarf species. The new findings instead show that the specimen found in the early 1990s was not only a young individual, but the age goes back 10 million years.
The ancient ecosystem
Fish, crocodiles, marine reptiles and small crustaceans have also been found in Villaggio del Pescatore, which have made it possible to reconstruct the ecosystem without equal in the world present in the upper Cretaceous period in what is now the Trieste area. For the first time we have a dinosaur field in Italy, explains study coordinator Federico Fanti, professor in the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna. The new finds allow us to better understand the evolutionary history of the duck-billed dinosaurs to which they belong, adds Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, of the University of Vigo (Spain), first author of the study. If once upon a time we thought of a system of small tropical islands in the ancient Tethys ocean, unsuitable for large dinosaurs, the new data instead show how large landmasses connected with Asia and Western Europe allowed the presence of animals of this size.
December 2, 2021 (change December 2, 2021 | 11:19)
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