In Teruel, Spain, palaeontologists unearthed a nearly complete skull of the armoured dinosaur Dacentrurus armatus. This extraordinary find dates back 150 million years to the Late Jurassic period. The skull emerged from the Villarrubio Formation and stands as the most intact stegosaur skull ever found in Europe. Dinosaur skulls are often fragile, so they seldom fossilise, making this discovery crucial for understanding these ancient plant-eaters' cranial structure. Published in the journal Vertebrate Zoology, the discovery has allowed researchers to formalise a new evolutionary group called ‘Neostegosauria.’ The breakthrough clarifies stegosaurs' lineage on the Iberian Peninsula and offers fresh insights into how these iconic plated dinosaurs evolved across different continents long ago.
