Dinosaurs and amber: A new window to the Cretaceous world from 110
million years ago
Arin~o: from mining to paleontological richness
Date:
December 10, 2021
Source:
University of Barcelona
Summary:
New findings of amber in the site of Arin~o in Teruel (Spain)
have enabled the reconstruction of a swampy paleoenvironment with
a rich coastal resin forest from 110 million years ago, from the
era of dinosaurs. This place featured conifers and understories
of gymnosperms and ferns, and flower plants, where insects,
turtles, crocodiles, mammals and dinosaurs such as the species
Proa valdearinnoensis and Europelta carbonensis lived.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
New findings of amber in the site of Arin~o in Teruel (Spain) have enabled
the reconstruction of a swampy paleoenvironment with a rich coastal resin forest from 110 million years ago, from the era of dinosaurs. This place featured conifers and understories of gymnosperms and ferns, and flower
plants, where insects, turtles, crocodiles, mammals and dinosaurs such
as the species Proa valdearinnoensis and Europelta carbonensis lived.
==========================================================================
This is one of the main contributions of a paper published in the
journal eLife which counts on the participation of members of the Faculty
of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona and the Biodiversity
Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), the University
of Oxford Museum of Natural History, the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME-CSIC) and the Dino'polis-Teruel Foundation, among a total
of sixteen international institutions. The new findings confirm Arin~o
as one of the most complete and important sites in the Cretaceous field.
Arin~o: from mining to paleontological richness Arin~o is a site
inside an open mine of lignite, known for the many fossil remains of vertebrates found over the last years. Amber or fossilized resin in
Arin~o is associated with remains of dinosaurs and other vertebrates,
and it is unusually rich in bioinclusions, that is, biological remains conserved in the inside (specially insects and other arthropods).
"The amber in Arin~o is one of the most prolific ambers worldwide and in previous excavations, it has provided fossil remains of eleven groups
of insects, apart from mites, spiders, mammal hair, and a fragment of
dinosaur feather," notes Sergio A'lvarez Parra, first author of the
article and member of the Faculty of Earth Sciences and the IRBio.
"These findings show the wise choice of sampling a site that would
disappear since the collection of recovered fossils is still bringing scientific surprises although the extensive fossil layer of Arin~o
is not accessible anymore," says Luis Alcala', former director of
the Dinopolis-Teruel Foundation and current director of the Granada
Science Park. The finding of amber with fossil content near the dinosaur remains is exceptionally rare, only registered in three sites worldwide, located in Fouras (France), Pipestone Creek (Canada) and Bone Butte
(United States).
========================================================================== Moreover, "the Arin~o case is more exceptional since the vertebrate
remains of the site and the bioinclusions of the amber are especially
abundant and diverse," states Ricardo Pe'rez de la Fuente, member of the University of Oxford Museum of National History. Therefore, the study of
the features of the Arin~o amber has enabled researchers to differentiate
two piece types: those related to resin produced by tree roots (root
amber) and those related to the resin produced in the branches or the
trunk (aerial amber).
Bioinclusions were only found in aerial amber pieces. "The distribution
of each type of piece in the site and the features of the shape and
external surface of root amber pieces shows these did not undergo any
movement, this is why they have been found in the same place where the
trees produced them about 110 million years ago. This feature has been identified for the first time in the fossil records," notes Xavier
Delclo`s, professor at the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics of
the UB and member of IRBio.
"Moreover, in the amber, we also found Ceratopogonidae blood-sucker
mosquitoes and dinosaur remains at the same stratigraphic range. This
means that the possibility of mosquitoes biting those dinosaurs is an open option," says the expert Enrique Pen~alver (IGME-CSIC). The geochemical analysis of amber indicates that the resin was produced by araucarians,
a group of conifers that currently live in the southern hemisphere.
As part of the study, the analysis of microfossils (charophyte algae,
pollen and ostracods) helps completing the paleoenvironmental information
of the site in Arin~o. "Considering the series of results we had from
the site and those obtained in the new study, we could reconstruct the ecosystem where the resiniferous trees grew at an exceptional level,
a scientific milestone rarely achieved so far in palaeontology," notes
A'lvarez Parra.
As stated by Eduardo Espi'lez and Luis Mampel, from the Dinopolis-Teruel Foundation, "new data confirm the exceptionality of the site, where the
team of the Dinopolis-Teruel Foundation has undergone excavations of
163 concentrations of vertebrates and has recovered more than 11,000
fossils since 2010, and where the studies will continue during 2022."
This study is part of the doctoral thesis carried out by Sergio A'lvarez
Parra (UB-IRBio), who counts on the support from the Secretary of
Universities and Research of the Catalan Government and the Social
European Fund. Among the co- authors of the paper are the experts Jordi
Pe'rez Cano, Carles Marti'n Closas, David Peris and Constanza Pen~a
Kairath, from the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics and IRBio.
This article counted on the collaboration of the SACMA Group and the
support from the Departments of Education, Culture and Sports and Science, University and Sports from the Government of Aragon. This new research collaboration by the AMBERIA research group and the Dinopolis-Teruel
Foundation has counted on the support from the former Ministry of
Science, Innovation and Universities, and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Barcelona. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sergio A'lvarez-Parra, Ricardo Pe'rez-de la Fuente, Enrique
Pen~alver,
Eduardo Barro'n, Luis Alcala', Jordi Pe'rez-Cano, Carles
Marti'n-Closas, Khaled Trabelsi, Nieves Mele'ndez, Rafael Lo'pez
Del Valle, Rafael P Lozano, David Peris, Ana Rodrigo, Vi'ctor Sarto
i Monteys, Carlos A Bueno-Cebollada, Ce'sar Menor-Salva'n, Marc
Philippe, Alba Sa'nchez- Garci'a, Constanza Pen~a-Kairath, Antonio
Arillo, Eduardo Espi'lez, Luis Mampel, Xavier Delclo`s. Dinosaur
bonebed amber from an original swamp forest soil. eLife, 2021;
10 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.72477 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211210103110.htm
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