Titanosaur, Super-Tall Vegetarian Discovered Near Madrid

Remains of a long-necked dinosaur have been discovered at a fossil site 85 miles east of Madrid, in the central city of Cuenca. The new species (Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra) is described in Communications Biology.

The titanosaur, or “giant lizard,” lived about 75 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period, when Europe was a huge archipelago of tropical islands. The long-dead beast was over 18 feet tall (much of it neck), taller than the largest living giraffes. These big herbivores sported bony external plates, which probably provided armor against carnivorous predators.

The dinosaur was discovered at the Lo Hueco fossil site, which has yielded more than 12,000 fossil fragments since 2007. Construction of a high-speed train line between Madrid and Levante has revealed a treasure trove of mortal remains from the distant past. The partial skeleton is among the most complete titanosaur fossils ever uncovered in Europe.

The name Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra has a diverse etymology. “Qunka” refers to Cuenca; saura is from the Latin saurus (lizard) but also references a painter from Cuenca, Antonio Saura; “pintiquiniestra” refers to the giant Queen Pintiquiniestra, a character from a novel mentioned in Cervantes’s “Don Quixote.”

The paleontologists’ work is part of the research of the Evolutionary Biology Group at UNED, focussed on Cretaceous ecosystems in the central Iberian Peninsula. Part of the skeleton of Qunkasaura is already on display in the Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca.

Photo credit: José Antonio Peñas Artero