Meet "Antonio"- A New Italian Dinosaur

(Reconstruction of Tethyshadros (artwork by Lukas Panzarin) based on the fossil nicknamed “Antonio.")

According to Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, who led the project, Antonio is noteworthy on many counts. Dalla Vecchia, a researcher at both the Institut Català de Paleontologia and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, told Discovery News that this dinosaur:

• is only the second ever dinosaur species named in Italy
• is the most complete medium to large sized dinosaur ever found in Europe
• could be one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons in the world
• shows for the first time what close relatives to duck-billed dinosaurs looked like in detail

Tethyshodros insularis means "island dweller hadrosaurid dinosaur of Tethys."

Tethys was an ocean that separated Africa from the Euro-Asia continent during dinosaur times. The new dinosaur species lived on a small island in the western part of this ocean 70 million years ago. Dalla Vecchia says that this was an unusual spot for such an animal, comparable to an elephant being found in the Bahamas today. 

Like many prehistoric animal island dwellers, Antonio was "unusual," as Dalla Vecchia said, to say the least. The head of this plant eater was elongated, like that of a modern horse, but resembling an Iguanodon. Its hands had three fingers instead of the usual four found on North American duck-billed dinosaurs. Its tail had a whiplash end. Perhaps most surprising was its diminutive size, for a dinosaur of this type.

Its relatives grew to be over 26 feet long, but Antonio was only 13 feet long. Of course, he still could have bulldozed over a human, but an effect called "insular dwarfism" likely caused his tinier size. Limited food supply, few predators and more could cause that. Scientists still debate the issue.

It's now thought that the ancestors of Tethyshadros reached the European Archipelago migrating from Asia. The Tethys Ocean at the time was gradually closing and the Alpine mountain chains were just beginning to form as a result of Africa colliding with the Euro-Asian continent, according to Dalla Vecchia. A chain of islands formed along the southern margin of the latter as a result. This then allowed dinosaurs to migrate by island hopping, according to the new study.

Here's more of the story in photos, as provided by Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia:

( Location of the Villaggio del Pescatore site, where the dinosaur was excavated)

( Evolutionary (phylogenetic) relationships of Tethyshadros. It belongs to a group (clade) named Hadrosauroidea that includes the group (clade) Hadrosauridae (the duck-billed dinosaurs), but excludes the primitive Iguanodon. Tethyshadros is close, but outside the Hadrosauridae.)

( Paleogeographic reconstruction of Europe and northern Africa about 70 million years ago (based on Camoin et al., 1993). The red asterisk marks the place of the Adriatic Island of the European Archipelago where Tethyshadros lived. The pink dot and the green cross indicate other European localities where important findings of hadrosauroid dinosaurs have been made, respectively in Spain and Romania.)

( “Antonio" reconstruction compared for size with a man- Dalla Vecchia.)

( Antonio's reconstruction compared with the silhouette of an average-sized North American duck-billed dinosaur.)

( The horse-looking head of Tethyshadros.)

( Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Tethys ocean and surrounding lands about 70 million years ago (based on Camoin et al., 1993). The red line indicates where the continental crust of the southern continents was subducing that of the Eurasiatic plate. Emergent land is in yellow, deep sea in blue, and shallow sea in pale blue. The red spot shows where Tethyshadros lived.)