An incredibly well-preserved stegosaur skull discovered in the province of Teruel in Spain is helping scientists rewrite what we know about this famous group of plated dinosaurs.
The fossil, which belongs to the species Dacentrurus armatus, is the most complete stegosaurian skull ever unearthed in Europe and has led to the proposal of a new evolutionary group: Neostegosauria.
The skull was found at the Están de Colón fossil site, formally a crop field, in the municipality of Riodeva (Teruel), a landscape that dates to the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago.
The research has been published in the journal Vertebrate Zoology.
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Stegosaur skull: a rare find
Stegosaurs were four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs known for the two rows of plates or spines – known as osteoderms – running along their backs and tails.
Because skull bones are delicate and rarely fossilised intact, this discovery is particularly valuable for scientists studying how stegosaurs evolved and spread around the world.
“The detailed study of this exceptional fossil has allowed us to reveal previously unknown aspects of the anatomy of Dacentrurus armatus, the quintessential European stegosaur, which in 2025 marks 150 years since its first description,” says Sergio Sánchez Fenollosa, a researcher at Fundación Dinópolis and co-author of the study. “This discovery is key to understanding how stegosaurian skulls evolved.”
Alongside the anatomical study, researchers have proposed a new evolutionary group called Neostegosauria. This group includes medium to large stegosaur species that lived across present-day Africa and Europe during the Middle and Late Jurassic, North America during the Late Jurassic, and parts of Asia from the Late Jurassic into the Early Cretaceous.
Excitingly, the Riodeva site continues to yield more important finds, including bones from other parts of the same adult dinosaur and remains of juveniles – an unusual and scientifically valuable combination, says managing director of the Fundación Dinópolis and co-author of the study Alberto Cobos.
"These discoveries continue to exponentially increase the palaeontological heritage of the province of Teruel, making it one of the iconic regions for understanding the evolution of life on Earth”.
Find out more about the study: New insights into the phylogeny and skull evolution of stegosaurian dinosaurs: An extraordinary cranium from the European Late Jurassic (Dinosauria: Stegosauria)
Main image: close-up photograph of the Dacentrurus armatus skull found in Riodeva (Teruel, Spain). Credit: Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis
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