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22 August 2014 First Tyrannosaurid Remains from the Upper Cretaceous “El Gallo” Formation of Baja California, México
Brandon R. Peecook, Jeffrey A. Wilson, René Hernández-Rivera, Marisol Montellano-Ballesteros, Gregory P. Wilson
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Abstract

We report a complete left fourth metatarsal collected from rocks of the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) “El Gallo” Formation exposed along the Pacific Ocean near El Rosario, Baja California, México. The metatarsal IV was part of an arctometatarsalian metatarsus, as evidenced by a deep medial notch proximally and extensive articulation for metatarsal III. This condition, along with the U-shape of the proximal end, supports identification as tyrannosauroid. It is assigned to Tyrannosauridae based on features on the posterior surface of the shaft, but finer taxonomic resolution is not possible. Compared to other tyrannosauroids, the metatarsal is relatively short, closely resembling the proportions of the gracile Albertosaurus sarcophagus rather than the much more massive, robust metatarsals of Tyrannosaurus rex. The Baja tyrannosaurid metatarsal is shorter than almost all other tyrannosauroid fourth metatarsals, raising the possibility that it pertains to an immature individual. North American tyrannosauroids are best known from the northern coast of the Western Interior Seaway, as well as less frequently on the southern coast of the seaway in Utah and New Mexico. The new record in Baja marks the first unambiguous skeletal material of a tyrannosaurid both in México and along the Pacific coast.

© 2014 B.R. Peecook et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Brandon R. Peecook, Jeffrey A. Wilson, René Hernández-Rivera, Marisol Montellano-Ballesteros, and Gregory P. Wilson "First Tyrannosaurid Remains from the Upper Cretaceous “El Gallo” Formation of Baja California, México," Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59(1), 71-80, (22 August 2014). https://doi.org/10.4202/app.2012.0003
Received: 10 January 2012; Accepted: 31 July 2012; Published: 22 August 2014
KEYWORDS
“El Gallo”Formation
Baja California
Campanian
Dinosauria
fourth metatarsal
México
Tyrannosauridae
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