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Dryad

Data for: Theropod dinosaur diversity of the lower English Wealden: analysis of a tooth-based fauna from the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Valanginian) via phylogenetic, discriminant and machine learning methods

Data files

Dec 05, 2024 version files 2.83 MB

Abstract

The Lower Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of southern England yields a diverse assemblage of theropod dinosaurs, its taxa being represented by fragments in addition to some of the most informative associated skeletons of the European Mesozoic. Spinosaurids, neovenatorid allosauroids, tyrannosauroids, and dromaeosaurids are among the reported Wealden Supergroup clades. However, the majority of relevant specimens are from the Barremian Upper Weald Clay and Wessex formations, and theropod diversity in the older Berriasian—Valanginian Hastings Group has remained poorly known, the fragmentary specimens reported thus far remaining enigmatic both in terms of phylogenetic affinities and sometimes provenance. A better understanding would be welcome given the paucity of Berriasian—Valanginian dinosaurs worldwide. Here, we describe an assemblage of Hastings Group theropod teeth from Valanginian Wadhurst Clay Formation outcrops of the Ashdown Brickworks locality near Bexhill, East Sussex. We subjected these teeth to phylogenetic, discriminant, and machine-learning analyses and found them to include members of Spinosauridae, Tyrannosauroidea, and Dromaeosauridae, in addition to others that remain of uncertain affinity within Coelurosauria. The taxa are distinct from those known from elsewhere in the Wealden Supergroup: the spinosaurid is not Baryonyx, and the tyrannosauroid is not Eotyrannus, for example, but we have not named new taxa at this time. Combined with other findings in the Wadhurst Clay Formation, our study indicates that Valanginian theropod diversity was comparable to that of younger Wealden Supergroup units, implying that the “characteristic” theropod components of Wealden faunas were established early within the deposition of this famous geological succession.