Walter Georg Kühne (1911-1991) and the discovery of the first semi-articulated titanosaurian sauropod from Europe
Vila, Bernat (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	In 1954 Walter Georg Kühne (1911-1991), the renowned discoverer of Mesozoic mammals, explored the south-Pyrenean basins of Catalonia with the aim of finding Cretaceous mammal-bearing sites. As a result, the German palaeontologist discovered one of the most important dinosaur fossils in the history of dinosaur research in Spain. In the Tremp Basin, near Orcau village, he found the remains of a large sauropod dinosaur, but a series of incomprehensible vicissitudes made the find forgotten and its extraction incomplete for over 60 years. Unprecedented research into the history of this discovery, including unpublished documents, images, and field notes, has revealed details on the costs of the campaigns, the daily logistics, the field techniques, and the fossils unearthed in the 1954 and 1955 excavations. More importantly, this new research ascertains that Kühne had already determined that the dinosaur skeleton was articulated from the pelvic girdle onwards. Even without being published, that was a historically significant achievement as, back then, the new specimen became the first and semi-articulated titanosaurian sauropod found in Europe. Currently, the sauropod fossils found by Kühne in Orcau, together with additional appendicular and axial bones, are the holotype of Abditosaurus kuehnei.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2020-119811GB-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PLEC2021-007903 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca CLT009/18/00067
Note:	Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Dinosaur ; Walter Georg Kühne ; Discovery ; Titanosaurs ; Abditosaurus
Published in:	Historical biology, Vol. 35, Issue 9 (2023) , p. 1536-1550, ISSN 1029-2381

DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2022.2100771

Postprint 51 p, 35.7 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles