Dacentrurine stegosaurs (Dinosauria): A new specimen of Miragaia longicollum from the Late Jurassic of Portugal resolves taxonomical validity and shows the occurrence of the clade in North America.

ABSTRACT: The stegosaur species Miragaia longicollum was erected based on a partial anterior skeleton from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal. Until then, almost all stegosaur specimens in Portugal and Spain had been identified as Dacentrurus armatus, the sister taxon of M. longicollum and only other member of the clade Dacentrurinae. The holotypes of the two species have little overlap, since the holotype of D. armatus is mostly a posterior skeleton, so the classification of other specimens to either species is unclear and the validity of M. longicollum has been questioned and debated. Here we describe a largely complete specimen of M. longicollum discovered in 1959 in Atouguia da Baleia, Peniche, Portugal, consisting of both anterior and posterior portions of the skeleton. Comparisons to the holotypes

SUBMITTER: Costa F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6853308 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature