''Protathlitis'' (meaning "champion") is a genus of

spinosaurid Spinosauridae (or spinosaurids) is a clade or Family (taxonomy), family of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs comprising ten to seventeen known genera. Spinosaurid fossils have been recovered worldwide, including Africa, Europe, South America, and Asia. ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

(

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

)

Arcillas de Morella Formation The Arcillas de Morella Formation is a geological formation in Spain whose strata date back to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, David B; et ...

of Castellón, Spain. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

and only species is ''Protathlitis cinctorrensis'', known from a partial skeleton. It was a basal member of the

Baryonychinae Baryonychinae is an extinct clade or subfamily of spinosaurids from the Early Cretaceous of Europe and West Africa. The clade was named by Charig & Milner in 1986 and defined by Sereno et al. in 1998 and Holtz et al. in 2004 as all taxa more close ...

. Its discovery, as well as those of the spinosaurids ''

Camarillasaurus ''Camarillasaurus'' (meaning " Camarillas lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Barremian) of Camarillas, Teruel Province, in what is now northeastern Spain. Described in 2014, it was originally identified as ...

'', ''

Iberospinus ''Iberospinus'' (meaning "Iberian Peninsula, Iberian spine") is an extinct genus of Spinosauridae, spinosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Papo Seco Formation of Portugal. The genus contains a single species, ''I. natarioi'', ...

'', ''

Riojavenatrix ''Riojavenatrix'' (meaning "La Rioja, Spain, La Rioja huntress") is a genus of spinosaurid theropod from the Early Cretaceous Enciso Group of La Rioja, Spain. The type species is ''Riojavenatrix lacustris''. ''Riojavenatrix'' represents one of f ...

'', and the contemporary ''

Vallibonavenatrix ''Vallibonavenatrix'' (meaning "Vallibona huntress" after the town near where its remains were found) is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Arcillas de Morella Formation of Castellón, Spain. The type and onl ...

'' shows that the Iberian Peninsula held a diverse assemblage of spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous.

Discovery and naming

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

remains, the

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

ry fragment 8ANA-109 and

caudal vertebrae Caudal vertebrae are the vertebrae of the tail in many vertebrates. In birds, the last few caudal vertebrae fuse into the pygostyle, and in apes, including humans, the caudal vertebrae are fused into the coccyx. In many reptiles, some of the caud ...

3ANA83, 4ANA43, 4ANA69, 4ANA76, and 5ANA78, were recovered from the ANA site of the Arcillas de Morella Formation, which was discovered in 1998 and remained unexplored until 2002. A tooth, 4ANA-11, possibly from the left mandible or right maxilla, was also referred. The remains were described as a new genus and species of spinosaurid in 2023, ''Protathlitis cinctorrensis''. The genus name, "''Protathlitis''", is Greek for "champion", and is dedicated to the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League was the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Villarreal defeated Manchester United i ...

won by Villareal C.F. and in light of the club's centenary in 2023. The specific name, "''cinctorrensis''", honors

Cinctorres Cinctorres is a town in the province of Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain, pertaining to the region of the Ports of Morella. , it has 498 inhabitants. Geography The municipality is located in a small plateau between Monte Bovalar and th ...

, the town where the remains were discovered. In 2024, Montealegre, Castillo-Visa & Sellés tentatively assigned specimen IPS919, a nearly complete tooth including a partial

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

from the Arcillas de Morella Formation, to

cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...

''Protathlitis''.

Classification

Santos-Cubedo ''et al.'' (2023) performed a

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

, placing ''Protathlitis'' as the basalmost member the Baryonychinae. Their results are shown in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below:

Palaeoenvironment

''Protathlitis'' hails from the

, which has been dated to the

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

of the

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

, between 129.4 and 125 million years ago. It coexisted in this environment with other dinosaurs including the

ornithischia Ornithischia () is an extinct clade of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek ...

ns ''

Iguanodon bernissartensis ''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning 'iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species found worldwide have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, Taxonomy (bi ...

'' and '' Morelladon beltrani'', an indeterminate

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...

, and the fellow spinosaurid ''Vallibonavenatrix''.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Early Cretaceous, Europe)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 562. .

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q118480866, from2=Q118495332 Spinosauridae Dinosaur genera Barremian dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2023 Dinosaurs of Spain