Tethyshadros

Tethyshadros ("Tethyan hadrosauroid") is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Lipica Formation (previously thought to come from the younger informal "Liburnia Formation") of Trieste, Italy. The type and only species is T. insularis.

==Discovery and naming== thumb|left|One of several Iguanodon bernissartensis skeletons discovered in 1882; the discovery of Tethyshadros was noted as the most complete large dinosaur skeleton discovered in Europe since this find (Museum of Natural Sciences, Brussels) Sometime in the 1980s, Alceo Tarlao and Giorgio Rimoli reported finding fragments of dinosaur bone while prospecting for rare bones. The abandoned quarry these were found in was only 100m inland, at Villagio del Pescatore, Trieste Province, Italy. It was from this quarry that a nearly complete hadrosaur skeleton was discovered in 1994. Lying on a vertical rockface, the specimen required a difficult excavation process, involving the removal of over 300 cubic metres of mineral and use of large equipment. Palaeontologist Fabio Della Vacchia among others served as scientific director for the excavation. Many other fossils, including various other hadrosaur specimens, were uncovered in the process. The main skeleton was not extracted until 1999. The significance of the find was immediately recognized, being the oldest hadrosaur known from the Europe and the most complete large dinosaur skeleton found on the continent since the 19th century discovery of Iguanodon remains at Bernissart, Belgium. The find was embedded in a fossil-bearing chalkstone lens, measuring ten metres thick and seventy metres in diameter. This lens were tougth to pertain to the Liburnia Formation. Based on the presence of foraminiferan Murciella cuvillieri and hylaeochampsid Acynodon, in addition to geologic data, the hadrosaur fossil dated to the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundary, around 70 million years ago., an age recently re-evaluated by more recent studies to 81.5-80.5 million years ago and to the Lipica Formation.