Overview
- Researchers from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel‑Dinópolis published a peer‑reviewed paper identifying 14 middle and posterior tail vertebrae plus several chevrons from La Tejería (El Castellar, Teruel) as Diplodocus sp.
- The study, released in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, used diagnostic tail anatomy and phylogenetic analyses under parsimony and Bayesian inference to place the specimen within the genus Diplodocus.
- Authors estimate the animal measured about 25 meters and date the fossils to roughly 150 million years ago in the Late Jurassic, and the original bones are on public display at the Museo Aragonés de Paleontología (Dinópolis).
- Several independent paleontologists praise the description but caution that assigning a genus from tail elements alone leaves room for alternative interpretations and calls for more skeletal material or reanalysis.
- If further work confirms the identification, the find would extend Diplodocus beyond its long‑recognized North American range and add direct evidence for episodic dispersal routes between Europe and North America in the Late Jurassic.