Abstract
Only the Baltic island of Bornholm is likely ever to produce Danish dinosaurs, not the western mainland Denmark. The Mesozoic of Bornholm spans Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous, with some potentially dinosaur producing deposits from Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous being continental, lagoon, littoral or marginal marine. So far the only dinosaurs have been found in 2000 and 2002 in the basal Jydegaard Fm., carrying a 'Purbeck-Wealden fauna' of the Earliest Cretaceous (Late Berriasian or Ryazanian) at Robbedale. Both are single tooth crowns; the first find, a 21 -mm crown, is a dromaeosaurine, Dromaeosauroides bornholmensis Christiansen & Bonde 2003, possibly the only true dromaeosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe. Estimated length of the animal is over 3 m. The second find is a somewhat unusual sauropod, most likely titanosaurian, the crown being only ca 15 mm high, with an unusual wear facet. Both teeth were derived from the lowermost 2-3 metres of the formation. Future expectations from this deposit are small ornithopods - and possibly mammals.
Keywords: Cretaceous; Baltic Sea; Europe; Scandinavia; morphology; teeth; Berriasian; Lower Cretaceous; paleoenvironment; Bornholm; Denmark
Cast of the holotype tooth (MGUH DK No. 315) of Dromaeosauroides bornholmensis at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen
Christiansen P. and Bonde N. 2003. New dinosaurs from Denmark = Nouveaux dinosaures du Danemark. Neues Jahrbuch der Geologie und Palaeontologie Abhandlungen. 227(2): 287-299.
