Paleontologists have made an “unbelievable” discovery of an unnamed species belonging to the carnivorous family Furileusauria.
According to Sci-News, the newly unearthed creature in the Normandy region of France has been named Caletodraco cottardi.
It is a member of Furileusauria, a subgroup of the Abelisauridae dinosaur family that emerged in the mid-Jurassic and thrived throughout the Cretaceous period.
However, the presence of this creature in France is entirely illogical.
A specimen is the tooth of Caletodraco cottardi and an artistic rendering of the Abelisauridae dinosaur group – (Image: Eric Buffetaut; AI Illustration: Anh Thư).
According to previous paleontological evidence, the entire group of Abelisauridae dinosaurs—fierce carnivorous machines ranging from medium to large sizes—were residents of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
Gondwana was one of the two main supercontinents formed from the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. It included landmasses that are now South America, Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Therefore, this group of dinosaurs should not have been found in present-day Europe. Previously, species belonging to the Furileusauria subgroup were only found in South America.
Nevertheless, there is a clue: Another subgroup of Abelisauridae was discovered in southern France in 1988. They were also found in the Cretaceous period in several European countries, including France, Spain, Hungary, and the Netherlands.
Thus, it is very possible that, somehow, the Furileusauria subgroup actually existed on both sides of the ocean during that time.
Returning to the intriguing creature that helped identify the new species, two fossilized bone fragments were found at the base of a cliff along the coast at Saint-Jouin-Bruneval on the Pays de Caux coastline, in the Seine-Maritime department of Normandy.
The research team, led by Dr. Eric Buffetaut from PSL Research University (France), analyzed and identified the new species.
It is believed to have lived around 100 million years ago—during the mid-Cretaceous—in the Armorican mountain range, about 100 km southwest of the fossil excavation site.
The remains or bones of the dinosaur may have been transported to the area where paleontologists found them, which was once part of the ancient seabed.
With the dating of the specimen, Caletodraco cottardi represents a period when the Abelisauridae thrived. At the same time, it indicates that this lineage is much more diverse, widespread, and complex than previously thought.
