Cariocecus

Smaller than a Microraptor!

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Cariocecus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Cariocecus as illustrated by Victor Feijo
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Ornithischia
Clade:	Ornithopoda
Genus:	†Cariocecus Bertozzo et al., 2025
Species:	†C. bocagei
Type species
†Cariocecus bocagei Bertozzo, 2025

Cariocecus is an extinct genus of iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal. The type and only species is described as Cariocecus bocagei.

Discovery and Naming

The scientists named the new species "Cariocecus bocagei," in reference to the ancient war deity revered by local populations in the pre-Roman period and in honor of José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, a 19th-century Portuguese naturalist. The found fossil is described as not fully grown, likely a juvenile or subadult specimen.

Biogeographic analysis tracing how Cariocecus bocagei and its relatives dispersed across continents during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.

The discovery of this Iguanadont species is openly noted and cited as quite significant; because as paleontologists have referred: ''' Although three other iguanodontid species have been officially identified in the Late Jurassic of Portugal (such as: Draconyx loureiroi, Eousdryosaurus nanohallucis, and Hesperonyx martinhotomasorum).

Prior to this study now published, "iguanodont fossils from the Early Cretaceous were rare, uninformative, and very primitive." According to Bruno Camilo, also an author of the study and director of SHN, this new species "represents the most complete dinosaur skull ever found in the country."

Another striking feature, he adds, is an unusually low “eyebrow” bone — lower than in any other known iguanodontian. “It likely supported a heavy brow ridge, possibly similar to those seen in modern eagles,” says Bertozzo. “That kind of structure may have had functional or even visual significance.” Based on the skull’s unossified sutures — the joints between bones that remain open in young animals — the team believes the individual was not yet fully mature when it died.

This species represents a '' Bridge point '' throughout the eurasian continent of Iguanadontid species migration, diversification and spread throughout the world.

Paleobiology

This Iguanadontian species had lived alongside with several dozen species of medium sized carnivorous theropods. It survived through potentially quite a volatile habitat guessing by the sheer carnivorous theropods diversity. Specifically; quite a wide range of Spinosaurid species belonging to Baryonychinae. Based off of actual and verified fossil evidence from Baryonychinae throughout the Iberian continent such as Iberospinus and Baryonyx; this species might as well be witin the range of Spinosaurids potential prey items.