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| Lo Hueco | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lo Hueco |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Castilla–La Mancha |
| Period | Late Cretaceous |
Lo Hueco is a Late Cretaceous fossil site located near Villarreal de Huerva in the province of Cuenca, Spain. The locality gained international attention after a large assemblage of dinosaur and vertebrate remains were recovered from an exposed sedimentary horizon during 2007 construction work. The site has since been the focus of collaborative research involving universities, museums, and heritage agencies.
The site was uncovered unexpectedly during construction carried out by local contractors, prompting reporting to the Ministry of Culture (Spain), regional authorities of Castile–La Mancha, and palaeontologists from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spain), and the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont. Emergency excavations involved teams from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, University of Zaragoza, and international collaborators including researchers affiliated with the Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Institution, and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Field seasons were coordinated with permits issued by the Dirección General de Bellas Artes and funding from bodies such as the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union. Publication of results has appeared in journals associated with the International Palaeontological Association and conferences like the Societas Europaea Paleontologiae.
The fossil-bearing horizon is situated within the uppermost sequences of the Villariñales Formation equivalent beds of the Tremp Group in the Iberian Peninsula Laño–Arén type basins context, corresponding to the Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous period. Stratigraphic work by teams from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidad de Zaragoza, and the Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio) integrated lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and sedimentology to correlate the Lo Hueco exposures with regional marker units such as the Arén Formation and the Garumnian facies. Detailed mapping referenced frameworks developed by the Spanish Geological Survey and stratigraphic schemes used in the European Commission-supported geoscience projects.
Excavations recovered an extensive assemblage including multiple sauropod elements attributed to genera comparable to Saltasaurus, Iberomesornis-age avifauna analogues, hadrosaurid fragments reminiscent of Pararhabdodon, and theropod teeth comparable to Dromaeosaurus and Troodon. Associated vertebrates include crocodyliform remains similar to Allodaposuchus, turtle shells comparable to Polysternon, pterosaur fragments similar to Pterodactylus-grade morphotypes, and abundant fish and amphibian remains that bear resemblances to taxa reported from Lo Hueco-age sites in France and Portugal. Invertebrate traces and plant remains link to assemblages known from the Iberian Peninsula Maastrichtian floras studied by teams at the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid and the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona.
Taphonomic analyses conducted by researchers from the Universitat de València, Universitat de Barcelona, and the Museo Paleontológico de Elche interpret the assemblage as a low-energy fluvial to overbank deposit influenced by seasonal flooding, comparable to depositional models applied at sites such as Dinosaur Provincial Park and Pecos River analogues in published studies. Bone orientation, weathering stages, and hydraulic sorting were evaluated using protocols from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and methodologies established in comparative work at Laño and Vallcebre. Paleoecological reconstructions integrated plant macrofossils and palynology datasets developed in collaboration with the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España and the University of Lisbon to model Maastrichtian Iberian ecosystems with components resembling faunas from Rognac and Ibero-Armorican domains.
Biostratigraphic indicators combined with magnetostratigraphy and radiometric constraints place the site within the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, broadly contemporaneous with faunas from the Transylvanian Basin and Haţeg Island provinces. Correlation work referenced chronostratigraphic charts from the International Commission on Stratigraphy and regional calibrations used in studies by the Geological Society of London and the Geological Society of America. U-Pb and Ar-Ar dating efforts on interbedded volcanic ash layers and regional tuffs were coordinated with laboratories at the University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, and the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH).
The site has contributed to debates on latest Cretaceous faunal diversity, endemism, and biogeographic connections between the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, and Gondwanan provinces. Research teams from the Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Granada, and international partners have used Lo Hueco material to revise taxonomy of European sauropods, refine models of Maastrichtian paleoecology, and inform extinction pattern analyses comparable to datasets from the Hell Creek Formation and Rábago Basin. Findings have been disseminated through presentations at the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology meetings, publications in journals associated with the Royal Society, and collaborative monographs with the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spain).
Specimens curated from the excavations are housed and conserved at institutions including the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spain), the Museu de las Ciencias de Castilla–La Mancha, and university collections at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidad de Zaragoza. Outreach and exhibition programs have involved the Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte (Spain), regional museums such as the Museo de Cuenca and international loans to venues like the Natural History Museum, London. Conservation protocols follow standards by the International Council of Museums and training collaborations with the Getty Conservation Institute.
Category:Fossil sites in Spain