A diverse Late Triassic tetrapod fauna from Manzanera (Teruel, Spain)

Several outcrops with vertebrate tetrapod remains have been located in the Keuper levels (Carnian, Upper Triassic) of the Spanish municipality of Manzanera (Teruel Province). The Manzanera remains include ribs and vertebrae of the sauropterygian nothosauroid Simosaurus, isolated osteoderms of cyamodontoid placodonts, partial vertebral centra of ichthyosaurs, and fragmentary dermal bones of temnospondyls. Therefore, a relatively high diversity is recognized in the Late Triassic of this region. The Simosaurus identification may represent the only occurrence of this genus in the Iberian Peninsula; it is one of the youngest in the fossil record. Several morphotypes of cyamodontoid placodont osteoderms are identified. The ichthyosaur elements from Manzanera represent the first record of this clade in the Iberian Keuper, constituting the second reference to this group in the Iberian Triassic after those from the Ladinian of Catalonia.