Pronunciation: KUN-kuh-SOH-ruh
Meaning: Qunka lizard
Author/s: Mocho et al. (2024)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Discovery Chart Position: #1142
Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra
(Qunka Lizardess, honouring Pintiquiniestra)Etymology
Qunkasaura is derived from "Qunka" (the name from which "Cuenca" is derived) and the Greek "saura" (both the feminine form of "sauros" meaning "lizard" and a reference to twentieth-century artist Antonio Saura, who worked, died [July 22, 1998] and destroyed 100s of his own canvases in Cuenca).Qunka, also spelled "Kunka", was a Moorish castle, nestled in a gorge between the Juncar and Huecar rivers, that expanded to become the walled city of "Cuenca" after being overpowered in 1177 by the Castilians, and gave rise to several small villages, including Fuentes where the Lo Hueco site is located.
The species epithet, pintiquiniestra, refers to the giant Queen Pintiquiniestra of Sobradisa from "Amadis of Greece", one of the chivralic novels that drove Don Quixote of la Mancha (a character created by Miguel de Cervantes) mad. Saura illustrated an issue of the book in 1987. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A1ACFB64-62CC-4621-B793-A74C6360C914.
Discovery
The first remains of Qunkasaura were discovered in the Villalba de la Sierra Formation at the Lo Hueco fossil-site, Fuentes village, Cuenca city in Cuenca province, Castilla-La Mancha autonomous community, central Spain, during the installation of the Madrid-Levante high-speed train (AVE) tracks in 2007.
The holotype (HUE-EC-04) is partial skeleton, including ten back vertebrae, several ribs, six fused hip vertebrae, an almost complete pelvic girdle, twelve tail vertebrae, a lower arm bone, a thigh, a right calfbone, and a fragmentary foot bone.
