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In this paragraph, Rauhut and colleagues wrote the following text:

"[...] Hendrickx & Mateus (2014) argued that the holotype of Torvosaurus guerneyi represented the largest theropod dinosaur yet recorded from Europe (see also specimens described by Malafaia et al., 2017a). This specimen includes a partial anterior caudal vertebra, the posterior articular surface of which is about 15% smaller...

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The largest European theropod dinosaurs: remains of a gigantic megalosaurid and giant theropod tracks from the Kimmeridgian of Asturias, Spain

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Paleontology and Evolutionary Science

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Introduction

Geological setting

Description

Osteological remains

Asturian theropod tracks

Discussion

Systematic affinities of MUJA-1913

Size of MUJA-1913

One striking feature of the vertebra from the Vega Formation is its enormous size. With a posterior centrum height of 150 mm, MUJA-1913 is larger than most anterior caudals for which measurements can be found in the literature. In particular, anterior caudals of Torvosaurus tanneri are about 25% smaller (Britt, 1991), an anterior caudal of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is c. 10% smaller (Stromer, 1915), and one of the largest theropod caudals from the Jurassic, for which measurements were given, a possible carcharodontosaurid caudal from the Tendaguru Formation (Rauhut, 2011), is also c. 25% smaller than the specimen described here. Larger caudal vertebrae are present in the gigantic Cretaceous carcharodontosaurids (Canale, Novas & Pol, 2015) and Tyrannosaurus (Brochu, 2003), but might also be found in the largest allosauroid predators of the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western USA (Chure, 1995, 2000; Williamson & Chure, 1996), though no measurements are available in the literature for these specimens. However this may be, Hendrickx & Mateus (2014) argued that the holotype of Torvosaurus guerneyi represented the largest theropod dinosaur yet recorded from Europe (see also specimens described by Malafaia et al., 2017a). This specimen includes a partial anterior caudal vertebra, the posterior articular surface of which is about 15% smaller than that of MUJA-1913. Thus, given that the specimen from the Vega Formation probably belongs to a closely related taxon, this specimen probably represents the largest theropod dinosaur recorded so far in Europe, and represents an apex predator of more than 10 m in length.

Ichnological evidence of giant theropods from the Kimmeridgian of Asturias

Late Jurassic apex predators in Europe

Conclusions

Additional Information and Declarations

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Oliver W.M. Rauhut conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Laura Piñuela conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Diego Castanera conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

José-Carlos García-Ramos conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Irene Sánchez Cela performed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft, preparation of materials.

Data Availability

The following information was supplied regarding data availability:

The specimens described are stored in the Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA), if not indicated otherwise (see institutional abbreviations in the manuscript).

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant RA 1012/23-1 (to Oliver Rauhut) and by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under grant CGL2015-66835-P (to Laura Piñuela). Diego Castanera was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of the Humboldt Fundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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