Mansourasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
---|---|
Restoration | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | † Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | † Sauropoda |
Clade: | † Macronaria |
Clade: | † Titanosauria |
Clade: | † Lithostrotia |
Genus: | † Mansourasaurus Sallam et al., 2018 |
Type species | |
Mansourasaurus shahinae Sallam et al., 2018 |
Mansourasaurus ("Mansoura lizard") is a genus of herbivorous lithostrotian sauropod dinosaur from the Quseir Formation of Egypt. The type and only species is Mansourasaurus shahinae.
The discovery of Mansourasaurus was considered quite significant by paleontologists, because very few Late Cretaceous sauropod remains have been found in Africa, where the rocky strata that preserve remains elsewhere and produce rich fossil beds were typically not found exposed at or near ground level.
Hesham Sallam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University, together with a team of students discovered a sauropod skeleton in the Dakhla Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert. [1] In 2016, it was reported that over thirty dinosaur specimens had been excavated, among them titanosaurian sauropods. [2]
Based on this skeleton, the type species Mansourasaurus shahinae was named and described in January 2018, by Hesham M. Sallam, Eric Gorscak, Patrick M. O'Connor, Iman A. El-Dawoudi, Sanaa El-Sayed, Sara Saber, Mahmoud A. Kora, Joseph J. W. Sertich, Erik R. Seiffert and Matthew C. Lamanna. The generic name refers to the Mansoura University. The specific name honours Mona Shahin, one of the founders of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center. [3]
The Mansourasaurus specimen described in 2018 is its holotype, MUVP 200, discovered in a layer of the Quseir Formation dating from the late Campanian, about seventy-three million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton with skull and lower jaws. [3] It contains a fragment of the skull roof, a part of the lower braincase, the dentaries of the lower jaws, three neck vertebrae, two back vertebrae, eight ribs, the right scapula, the right coracoid, both humeri, a radius, a third metacarpal, three metatarsals, and parts of osteoderms. The skeleton was found on a surface of four by three metres. It was not articulated. The authors concluded that the holotype is a juvenile specimen, because the bones of its shoulder girdle had not yet fused. An ulna, specimen MUVP 201, found at twenty metres distance from the skeleton, was not referred to the species as it seemed somewhat too large for the holotype individual and a general connection to the species could not be proven. [3]
The not fully-grown holotype individual was about 8–10 metres (26–33 ft) long. [3] It probably weighed about 5,000 kg, approximately the same as a bull African elephant. [4]
The describing authors indicated a number of distinguishing traits. These are autapomorphies, unique derived characters. Each lower jaw dentary bears ten teeth. Where the dentaries touch each other, at the front of the lower jaws, they possess a common "chin", equalling a third of the front height. The horizontal groove in the inner side of the dentary, the fossa Meckeliana, largely opens to below. The anterior middle neck vertebrae are pierced by a foramen in the rear side. In at least one anterior middle neck vertebra the parapophysis, the process which bears the facet for the lower rib head, has a horizontal length equal to the vertebral centrum as a whole. With some anterior neck vertebrae, the bone web between the heads of the neck rib is pierced by a foramen. The lower end of the radius has a transverse width four times larger than the width measured from the front to the rear. [3]
Mansourasaurus was placed in the Titanosauria in a derived position as a sister species of Lohuecotitan . A cladistic analysis showed it to belong to a clade of otherwise largely Eurasian sauropods, also including Ampelosaurus , Lirainosaurus , Nemegtosaurus , Opisthocoelicaudia and Paludititan , more or less contemporaneous forms. Hypotheses about relationships between Late Cretaceous African and Eurasian sauropods had been hard to test, because very few of their remains had been found in Africa. Mansourasaurus represents the best-known continental African (i.e. excluding Madagascar) titanosaur of the Upper Cretaceous from the time period after the Cenomanian. Its existence would show that the continent was far less isolated from the various Eurasian landmasses than had been assumed. The ancestors of Mansourasaurus would have reached Africa from Europe. [3]
Argentinosaurus is a genus of giant sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Argentina. Although it is only known from fragmentary remains, Argentinosaurus is one of the largest known land animals of all time, perhaps the largest, measuring 30–35 m (98–115 ft) long and weighing 65–80 t. It was a member of Titanosauria, the dominant group of sauropods during the Cretaceous. It is widely regarded by many paleontologists as the biggest dinosaur ever, and perhaps lengthwise the longest animal ever, though both claims have no concrete evidence yet.
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Patagosaurus is an extinct genus of eusauropod dinosaur from the Middle-Late Toarcian of Patagonia, Argentina. It was first found in deposits of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, which date to around 179 to 177 million years ago. Although originally twelve specimens were assigned to the taxon, at least one of them may belong to a different genus. Patagosaurus probably lived alongside genera as Piatnitzkysaurus, Condorraptor and Volkheimeria.
Pellegrinisaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period. The holotype was found in the Allen Formation, Argentina.
Maxakalisaurus is a genus of titanosaur dinosaur, found in the Adamantina Formation of Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais in 1998. The genus name is derived from the tribe of the Maxakali; Topa is one of their divinities.
Spinophorosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Niger during the Middle Jurassic period. The first two specimens were excavated in the 2000s by German and Spanish teams under difficult conditions. The skeletons were brought to Europe and digitally replicated, making Spinophorosaurus the first sauropod to have its skeleton 3D printed, and were to be returned to Niger in the future. Together, the two specimens represented most of the skeleton of the genus, and one of the most completely known basal sauropods of its time and place. The first skeleton was made the holotype specimen of the new genus and species Spinophorosaurus nigerensis in 2009; the generic name refers to what was initially thought to be spiked osteoderms, and the specific name refers to where it was found. A juvenile sauropod from the same area was later assigned to the genus.
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Hesham Sallam is an Egyptian paleontologist and the founder of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP-C), the first vertebrate paleontology program in the Middle East. He works as an associate professor at the American University in Cairo and Mansoura University. Sallam led the discovery and description of Mansourasaurus shahinae, a species of sauropod dinosaur from Egypt, which has improved understanding of the prehistory of Africa during the latest Cretaceous period. His work has helped popularize paleontology in Egypt.
Wahasuchus is a genus of extinct mesoeucrocodylian of the Middle Campanian age found in the Quseir Formation, Egypt. The generic name derives from the Arabic word واحة (waha), which means "oasis" and souchos from the Greek in honor of crocodile-headed god of ancient Egypt. The specific egyptensis (Lat.) means from Egypt.
The Quseir Formation is a geological formation in the vicinity of the Kharga Oasis in Egypt. It is Campanian In age. The lithology largely consists of soft shale with hard bands of sandstone, siltstone and phosphorite. The environment of deposition was nearshore to freshwater fluvio-lacustrine characterized by moist and aquatic habitats with a tropical warm-humid climate. It is conformably overlain by the marine late Campanian-Maastrichtian Duwi Formation, and unconformably overlies the Turonian Taref Formation. The sauropod dinosaurs Mansourasaurus and Igai are known from the formation, as well as the proximal fibula of an indeterminate theropod. Additionally the lungfish genera Lavocatodus and Protopterus, the crocodyliform Wahasuchus and the bothremydid turtle Khargachelys are also known.
Mnyamawamtuka is a genus of lithostrotian titanosaur sauropod dinosaur from the Cretaceous Galula Formation in Tanzania. The type and only species is M. moyowamkia.
Abditosaurus is an extinct genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Group of Catalonia, Spain. The type and only species is Abditosaurus kuehnei. Phylogenetic analyses recover it within a clade of South American and African saltasaurines, distinct from other insular dwarf sauropods from the European archipelago. Abditosaurus inhabited the Ibero-Armorican Island, a prehistoric island made up of what is now Spain, Portugal, and southern France, and would have been the largest titanosaur species in its environment.
Ruixinia is an extinct genus of somphospondylan titanosauriform dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Yixian Formation of China. The genus contains a single species, Ruixinia zhangi. The Ruixinia holotype is a partial articulated skeleton with the most complete series of caudal vertebrae known from any Asian titanosauriform.
Igai is a genus of titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous Quseir Formation of Kharga Oasis, Egypt. The type species is Igai semkhu.