An artist's depiction of a Delapparentia
Delapparentia is a genus of ornithischian from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Camarillas Formation of Galve, Teruel Province, Spain.
The type specimen, MPT/I.G, was found in the spring of 1958 by amateur palaeontologist Jose Maria Herrero Marzo. From 25 September 1958 it was collected by Professor Dimas Femandez-Galiano, assisted by a Dutch team from the University of Utrecht. The finds were originally assigned to Iguanodon bernissartensis by Albert-Felix de Lapparent in 1960. In 2006 Jose Ignacio Ruiz-Omenaca named it Delapparentia turolensis in a dissertation. Such a nomen ex dissertatione being invalid, he validly named it in 2011. The generic name honours de Lapparent. The specific name is derived from the Latin name of Teruel, Turia.
The holotype is a partial skeleton lacking the skull, of an adult individual. It consists of four cervical vertebrae, twenty-eight neurapophyses, two sacral vertebrae, fourteen caudal vertebrae, fragments of cervical, dorsal and sternal ribs, fragments of five chevrons, numerous ossified tendons and a left pubis and ilium. Some other bones, misidentified by de Lapparent as those of the sauropod Aragosaurus, were referred to Delapparentia, among them an ischium. Several autapomorphies (unique characterisitics) of Delapparentia were established: posterior dorsal ribs with long, parallel and unfused capitula and tubercula, ossified sternal ribs, and a straight and lateromedially expanded preacetabular process of the ilium. It also presents an unique combination of anterior dorsal ribs with a pneumatic foramen and an ischium that is large in relation to the ilium.
Delapparentia was a large species, about 15% longer than Iguanodon bernissartensis. The length has been estimated at ten metres, the weight at 3.5 tonnes. The ilium is 78 centimetres long.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Cerapoda
Infraorder: Ornithopoda
Genus: Delapparentia
Species: D. turolensis J. I. Ruiz-Omenaca, 2011