Laelaps

According to a new article in The Times, an extremely productive Cretaceous bone bed has been found at Lo Hueco near the city of Cuenca (somewhere between Madrid and Valencia) in Spain, diggers for a rail project stumbling across the site. They're in a bit of a rush, though; they only have until the end of the month excavate the site before the diggers come back in. I guess there's just not stopping "progress," and although I'm sure the researchers will have plenty of time to study the bones in the lab a month is not enough time to give the fossils they attention that they need (or even to do a detailed study of the paleoecology of the site).

What kinds of dinosaurs are being found? The article is poorly written when it comes to this part, obscuring some of the information, but we're told that four "types" of Titanosaurus have been discovered. Remains attributed to Titanosaurus have been found in southern Europe, but the genus is a bit of a wastebin, especially since the original remains don't especially distinguish it from other related forms. I can only imagine that what the article means is that there are four species or genera of titanosaurs at the site, the Family Titanosauridae becoming more and more well known in recent years. The piece also makes mention of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus (not to be confused with the ornithomimid Struthiomimus), dromeosaurs, and ornithopod Rhabdodon, although there may be more waiting to be uncovered. I really don't know how they're going to safely and carefully get all these dinosaurs out of the ground within the month, and I really do hope that the site can be preserved (at least for a while).

I also should point out a bit of a tasty typo;

"Everything indicates that the dino-sours were enjoying great evolutionary vigour when they suddenly disappeared," said José Luis Sanz, the co-director of the dig. [emphasis mine]

[Hat-tip to Peter of The Beagle Project Blog]