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Aegyptosaurus

Aegyptosaurus
Temporal range: Cenomanian,
~100–94 Ma
Humerus and femur reconstructions (from specimen 1912VIII61) to scale
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Macronaria
Clade: †Titanosauria
Genus: †Aegyptosaurus
Stromer, 1932
Type species
†Aegyptosaurus baharijensis
Stromer, 1932

Aegyptosaurus /iːˌdʒɪptoʊˈsɔːrəs/ (meaning 'Egypt's lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period (Cenomanian faunal stage).

Discovery and naming

The holotype (1912VIII61) consists of three caudal vertebrae, a partial scapula, and some limb bones, all of which were discovered in the Bahariya Formation of Egypt between 1910 and c. 1913 by Ernst Stromer and Richard Markgraf[1] and the holotype was sent to Munich, Germany in 1915 to be studied at the same time the holotype of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was described.[2]

Specimen 1912VIII61, the holotype of A. baharijensis

Aegyptosaurus was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932, seventeen years after the holotype was sent to Munich,[1] and its fossils have been found in the Bahariya Formation of Egypt, the Farak Formation of Niger and in several other different locations in the Sahara Desert.[3] The generic name, Aegyptosaurus, is derived from the country in which it was discovered and the Greek sauros meaning 'lizard'. All of the specimens destroyed in 1944 were discovered before 1939 and the fossils were stored together in Munich, but were obliterated when an Allied bombing raid destroyed the museum where they were kept on 25 April 1944, during World War II. Only fragments from other specimens still exist, mostly in the form of indeterminate specimens from Egypt and Niger.[4][5][6]

Speculative restoration

de Lapparent (1960) referred a series of caudal vertebrae from the Continental intercalaire of Egypt to Aegyptosaurus baharijensis.[4]

Description

In 2010, based on Paralititan and other related titanosaurs, Gregory S. Paul estimated the length of Aegyptosaurus at 15 metres (49 ft), and its weight at 7 tonnes (7.7 short tons).[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Stromer, E. (1932a). Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltierreste der Baharîje-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 11. Sauropoda. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, Neue Folge, 10: 1-21.
  2. ^ Stromer, E. (1915). "Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltier-Reste der Baharije-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 3. Das Original des Theropoden Spinosaurus aegyptiacus nov. gen., nov. spec". Abhandlungen der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse (in German). 28 (3): 1–32.
  3. ^ Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Early Cretaceous, Africa)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 571-573. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
  4. ^ a b de Lapparent, A.F. (1960): "Les dinosauriens du "continental intercalaire" du Sahara central" ("The dinosaurs of the "continental intercalaire" of the central Sahara.") Mémoires de la Société Géologic de France, Nouvelle Série 88A vol.39(1-6):1-57.
  5. ^ Curry Rogers, K. (2005), "Titanosauria: A Phylogenetic Overview" in Curry Rogers and Wilson (eds), The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology pp. 50–103
  6. ^ Fanti, F.; Cau, A.; Hassine, M. (February 2014). "Evidence for titanosauriforms and rebbachisaurids (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 90: 1–8. Bibcode:2014JAfES..90....1F. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2013.10.010.
  7. ^ Paul, G.S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 205.
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