Un nuevo estudio ha permitido reconocer en el yacimiento de microvertebrados de los Menires una asociación fósil compuesta por restos de organismos que formaron parte de la biota que albergaba el entorno de Ladruñán durante el Barremiense, hace unos 125 millones de años, donde se desarrollaron lagos, humedales y llanuras aluviales. Los restos fósiles reconocidos son principalmente huesos desarticulados, dientes y otros elementos, pertenecientes a tortugas dulceacuícolas y terrestres, cocodrilos, dinosaurios y otros vertebrados de menor tamaño (anfibios, lagartos y mamíferos). La comparación de resultados entre muestreos ha permitido verificar que la recolección superficial sirve, al menos, para reconocer la presencia y abundancia relativa de los principales grupos de vertebrados de la asociación, aunque es ineficaz para reconocer adecuadamente la representación de los vertebrados de menor tamaño (por ejemplo anfibios y lagartos) o de otros restos pequeños como cáscaras de huevo.

La referencia completa del artículo, publicado en acceso abierto:

Gasca, J.M.; Parrilla-Bel, J.; Moreno-Azanza, M.; Navarro-Lorbés, P.; Canudo, J.I. Testing the Usefulness of the Surface Collecting Method in a Vertebrate Microfossil Site from the Barremian of Spain (Los Menires, Mirambel Formation). Diversity 2023, 15, 135. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020135

Por cierto, que el nombre del yacimiento Los Menires viene de un topónimo próximo que hace referencia a la forma caprichosa de las rocas que coronan un cerro:

Referencia:

Marcos Aurell, Diego Torromé, José M. Gasca, Pablo Calvín, Manuel Pérez-Pueyo, Jara Parrilla-Bel, Eduardo Medrano-Aguado, Carles Martín-Closas, Alba Vicente, Pablo Sierra-Campos, José I. Canudo,
Latest Cretaceous palaeogeographic evolution of northeast Iberia: Insights from the Campanian continental Montalbán subbasin (Spain), Earth-Science Reviews,2022,104251,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104251.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001282522200335X)

Abstract: This work characterizes for the first time the 500–700 m-thick uppermost Cretaceous continental sedimentary succession of the Allueva Fm recorded in the northeastern margin of the Iberian basin, in the Montalbán subbasin (Maestrazgo domain, Spain). The middle-upper Campanian age of this unit constrained here by new paleomagnetic and biostratigraphic data involves major revision of previous stratigraphic and palaeogeographic interpretations. The uplift of the northern marginal areas of the Montalbán subbasin onwards from the middle Campanian supplied the coarse terrigenous-clastic sediments common in the alluvial Allueva Fm. Moreover, a sharp increase of the sedimentation rates (from 4 to 19 cm/ky) from the lower to the middle-upper part of the Allueva Fm has been related to further increase of the tectonic activity during the middle part of the late Campanian. Also relevant are the new discovered vertebrate sites mostly found in the marginal areas of a large lacustrine-palustrine carbonate system developed during the latest Campanian. Vertebrate sites include a fossil assemblage with abundance of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs as well as the presence of ornithopod dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs. A review of the dinosaur fossil sites recorded in other Iberian subbasins shows a similar fossil assembage occurrence during the late Campanian–earliest Maastrichtian timespan, previous to the faunal turnover that took place in the Ibero-Armorican landmass around the onset of the late Maastrichtian. The stratigraphic, sedimentological and paleontological characterization of the successions recorded during the initial stages of development of the Montalbán subbasin have major implication to understand the latest Cretaceous palaeogeographic evolution of northeast Iberia. Comparative review to other latest Cretaceous continental successions deposited in other domains of the Iberian basin indicates a south to north migration of newly developed subsident subbasins: during the Campanian (South Iberian domain), during the middle-late Campanian (northern Maestrazgo domain), and during the Maastrichtian (central Castillian domain).

Keywords: Latest Cretaceous; Iberia; Tecto-sedimentary evolution; Dinosaurs; Magnetostratigraphy

Y para terminar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> un enlace a un video explicativo sobre esta investigación por parte del investigador principal, Marcos Aurell, en la televisión pública aragonesa.