ENGLISH VERTEBRATE FOSSIL COLLECTION INFORMATION SHEET 6 (CASES 83-111) Vertebrates are animals with a spinal cord protected by a bony or cartilaginous vertebral column. The first known vertebrate fossils are from the Ordovician (488-443 million years ago), although they probably date back to the Early Cambrian (530 million years ago). This information sheet describes some of the most outstanding vertebrate fossils exhibited on the first floor of the museum. CASE 86 CASE 88 CASE 89 CASE. 89 CASE 90 LATE MIOCENE LATE TRIASSIC EARLY CRETACEOUS EARLY CRETACEOUS EARLY OLIGOCENE This is an extinct species of frog This bipedal carnivore measuring Iiberomesornis romerali is a primitive Concornis lacustris is a fossil bird This is a small crocodile (larger described in line with fossils found in approximately one metre long bird that was found in the locality of that was found in the locality of Las individuals reached approximately an old lignite and sulphur mine in the presents heterodont dentition (more Las Hoyas (Cuenca). The size of the Hoyas (Cuenca), of which only one 1.5 m in length) found solely in the locality of Libros (Teruel). The fossils than one type of tooth morphology). only known specimen to date is specimen is known. It was almost northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. are associated with rocks formed in Thus, some of the teeth have approximately 10 cm long, and it twice the size ofIberomesornis , and It was covered by thick armoured what was a fairly deep lake some 6 curved, serrated crowns typical of would have weighed between 15 and as with this latter, the skull has not skin and inhabited freshwater or million years ago. The anoxic (no the theropods (carnivorous 20 grams.Iberomesornis presents a been preserved. This bird belongs to slightly salt water lakes and lagoons oxygen) conditions of the deep water dinosaurs), whereas others are leaf- combination of ancestral and derived the Enantiornithes, an extinct group in what is now the Ebro River Basin. prevented complete decomposition shaped with a basal constriction characters. For example, its caudal of Cretaceous birds with the capacity A recent review of this species of the organisms that fell to the similar to that of primitive sauropo- vertebrae are fused, forming a to fly and primitive skulls with or proposed it be assigned to the bottom, thus facilitating their domorphs. Although Eoraptor is structure called the pygostyle, which without teeth. The specimen of genus Diplocynodon. Modern exceptional state of preservation. structurally close to the common is present in modern birds. In Concornis from Las Hoyas presents crocodiles are large (up to 5 m long) Some of the frog fossils and those of ancestor of all dinosaurs, some of its contrast, other characters are long primary flight feathers with aquatic predators covered by scales other amphibians are outlined by a derived characters, such as having a ancestral, such as the absence of asymmetric vanes as in modern and bony plates (osteoderms), thin film of carbon. Their state of three-fingered hand with the the tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus, birds, suggesting that it had which live in tropical and subtropical preservation is such that structures capacity to grip, situate it as the bones that are typically found in developed the capacity to fly. In climates. However, the fossil record as delicate as larval eyes, stomach most primitive theropod known. modern birds and which are formed Europe, only two species from the tells a very different story: these contents and even muscle tissue and However, the recent discovery of a by the fusion of several bones in the group of Enantiornithes are known, animals once presented a wide bone marrow can be distinguished in new theropod (Eodromaeus) hind limbs. Although the skull has not both from Las Hoyas. A third diversity of forms, some of which were very different to modern some of the amphibian fossils from situates Eoraptor as a basal been preserved, Iberomesornis specimen was found in the province crocodiles. For example, the this locality. sauropodomorph. probably had teeth, as was the case of LeridaCambiado, but it has not with the vast majority of primitive been possible to assign it to any atoposaurs were very small Pelophylax pueyoi. Eoraptor lunensis (replica). crocodylomorphs (30-70 cm in Late Miocene (6 million years ago). birds known. particular species because it was a Late Triassic (230 million years ago). juvenile individual. length) which probably lived on land. Libros (Teruel, Spain). Ischigualasto (Argentina). Iberomesornis romerali (replica). Maximum dimension: 24 cm. Maximum dimension: 13 cm. Early Cretaceous (120 million years Concornis lacustris (replica). Diplocynodon muelleri. ago). Early Cretaceous (120 million years Early Oligocene (31 million years La Cierva (Cuenca, Spain). ago). ago). Geominero Maximum dimension: 16 cm. La Cierva (Cuenca, Spain). Tárrega (Lérida, Spain). eo Maximum dimension: 16 cm. Maximum dimension: 24cm. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España ENGLISH VERTEBRATE FOSSIL COLLECTION INFORMATION SHEET 6 (CASES 83-111) CASE 93 CASE 96 CASE 107 CASE 108 PRIMERA PLANTA LATE MIOCENE LATE PLIOCENE LATE PLIOCENE EARLY PLEISTOCENE LATE CRETACEOUS Hipparion, a genus of equidae, was This extinct bovid species was Australopithecus is an extinct genus Homo habilis is the first representative Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the widely distributed throughout endemic to the Balearic Islands, of hominid primates that lived in of the genus Homo, and lived in East largest terrestrial carnivores of all Eurasia during the Late Miocene, which it inhabited for more than 5 Africa between 4 and 2 million years Africa, in what is now Tanzania. H. time.Tyrannosaurs belong to the although its ancestors were from million years. It presents a series of ago. It is thought thatA. africanus or habilis is thought to have manufactu- coelurosaurs, a group of dinosaurs North America. The first European exclusive derived characters such as A. afarensis might be the ancestors red and used stone tools (hence the that also includes birds. Most of the examples of Hipparion were robust, having frontally directed eyes rather of the genusHomo . The “Taung namehabilis : “handy man”); however, feathered dinosaurs that have been but the species inhabiting Spain at than laterally as in other bovids, Child” was the first primitive human we cannot be absolutely certain of this found are coelurosaurs. the end of the Miocene were being small (12-15 kg) and having a fossil found in Africa. The skull because the area where tools have Consequently, it has been suggested smaller and more slightly built. single, continuously growing incisor. belongstoachildagedaboutthree been found was also inhabited at the thatT. rex might also have had Hipparion mediterraneum reached A recent histological study has shown years old that it is thought was time by several other species of the feathers. However, the discovery of a weight of approximately 200 kg thatM. balearicus presented a type attacked and killed by an eagle due genus Homo. On average, H. habilis adult tyrannosaur skin impressions compared to the almost 400 kg that of bone tissue that was previously to the marks that appear on some of stood 1-1.35 m tall and weighed 32 shows that it was covered with small modern horses weigh. This only known in reptiles. This tissue the skull bones. This specimen kg. It had smaller teeth than those of scales. It remains possible that T. rex species was not widespread in the indicates that it had a slower and provided the first evidence that Australopithecus, but the enamel had feathers or protofeathers on Iberian Peninsula, having only been more uneven growth rate than primitive humans were bipedal, due remained thick and the jaws strong, some parts of the body, but there is found in Catalonia and Valencia. expected, with periodic pauses that to the position of the foramen indicating that these were adapted for no evidence for this at the moment. T. would also have delayed sexual magnum, a hole located at the base chewing hard food. While it used to be rex is a well-known dinosaur because Hipparion mediterraneum. maturity. It is probable that selection of the skull through which the spinal thought thatH. habilis was the several almost complete specimens Late Miocene (6 million years ago). pressure due to insularity was cord passes to connect to the brain. predecessor ofH. erectus , recent have been found. In one of them, it Piera (Barcelona Spain). responsible for reversing some of the The position of the foramen discoveries of fossils of both species in has been possible to isolate and the same area cast doubt on the idea Maximum dimension: 24 cm. physiological and developmental indicates that the head was study the remains of tissues that one evolved after the other. It is characters of these mammals. positioned at the top of the spinal preserved inside the femur; however, more likely that both species coexisted Consequently, their growth would be column, a trait associated with some palaeontologists have over a long period of time. more similar to that of the reptiles. bipedal locomotion. questioned whether these really are Homo habilis. Early Pleistocene (2.4- 1.4 million years ago). Africa. tissue remains. Myotragus balearicus. Australopithecus africanus (replica Late Pliocene-Quaternary (2.5 of the “Taung Child”). Homo habilis (replica). Tyrannosaurus rex. years ago - 4,000 years ago). Late Pliocene (2.5 million years ago) Early Pleistocene (2.4-1.4 million Late Cretaceous (65 million years Mallorca (Spain). Africa. years ago). ago). Maximum dimension: 15 cm. Maximum dimension: 14 cm. Olduvai (Tanzania). South Dakota (USA). Maximum dimension: 17 cm. Maximum dimension: 140 cm..