Reacción a "What is believed to be the first diplodocus found outside North America has been discovered in Teruel"

The research into a possible diplodocus find in Teruel is due to be published in one of the most prestigious journals in vertebrate palaeontology. The fossils are well described and well illustrated, so the research is of high quality. All research – and particularly in dinosaur palaeontology, where we work with fragmentary material – involves both data and interpretation.

The remains studied consist of a section of tail which our colleagues have interpreted as belonging to Diplodocus, which serves as evidence that there was an intercontinental connection between Iberia and North America during the Late Jurassic. This claim is not new, as it has been put forward by other authors for years; what is new is that it has been demonstrated for the first time with a sauropod, whereas previously it had been shown with other dinosaurs such as the carnivorous Allosaurus. Personally, I believe the remains are too fragmentary – they consist solely of caudal vertebrae – to assign them to the genus Diplodocus, and the conclusion regarding the palaeobiogeographical relationship between Europe and North America could just as easily have been proposed without resorting to such a precise classification, the accuracy of which only time will tell.

It is a fine piece of work and a valuable contribution to the history of Late Jurassic dinosaurs.