A revised census of European Late Cretaceous nodosaurids(Ornithischia: Ankylosauria): last occurrence and possible extinction scenarios

ABSTRAT Nodosaurid ankylosaurs illustrate well the differences between European and North American faunal assemblages during the Late Cretaceous. A revised checklist of the nodosaurid specimens from the Late Cretaceous (mainly Campanian and Maastrichtian) localities of Europe reveals a more important diversity than commonly envisaged, with at least two distinct species represented. Struthiosaurus nustriacus and a new nodosaurid from the Basque‐Cantabric Basin were small (body length about 3 m), presumably dwarf insular forms. AIthough a detailed stratigraphic correlation is not yet availabIe, the disappearance orrelationisnotof the nodosaurids in the Western Interior of North America and in Europe may not be simultaneous but asynchronous. If so, the extinction of the Nodosauridae occurred in the latest Maastrichtian and Struthiosaurus could be the last representative of the group.