Rasgos paleopatológicos en las vértebras caudales de los dinosaurios titanosaurios del Cretácico Superior de Lo Hueco (Fuentes, Cuenca)

Abstract

The paleontological site of “Lo Hueco” (Upper Cretaceous, Spain, Cuenca) has provided a great variety of partial skeletons of articulated titanosaurs, providing a unique paleontological record in Europe. In the present study, the secured skeletons of titanosaurs of the paleontonlogical collection will be revised for the first time from a pathological point of view in order to determine the various pathologies that affected these individuals, putting a special emphasize on the caudal series. To this end, a comparative anatomical study was carried out to determine the diversity of morphologies present in the titanosaurs of Lo Hueco and to exclude possible pathological conditions of a normal anatomical variant. A comparison has also been made with specialized bibliography to exclude lesions produced by diagenetic and biostratinomic changes. Subsequently, 14 pathological elements have been identified, 10 corresponding to caudal vertebrae and 4 belonging to hemal arches. All of them have been described in detail and a differential diagnosis has been made based on a macroscopic analysis. In cases where macroscopic analysis has not been sufficient, medical technology has been used to complement the diagnosis and reach a final hypothesis. Finally, in this study we have identified two vertebral bodies with spondylosis deformans, two vertebrae with subchondral cysts, three fissured hemal arches, a vertebra with a dislocation, a hemal arch with an enthesophyte, a vertebra of congenital or traumatic origin, two vertebral fusions corresponding to enthesophytes, a vertebra with possible osteoarthritis and a vertebral body with an exostosis of unknown origin. This work represents the second registered pathological study of sauropods located of the Iberian Peninsula, providing new data and expanding our knowledge of the pathologies in sauropod dinosaurs.