Algoasaurus

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Algoasaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Genus: Algoasaurus
Broom, 1904
Binomial name
Algoasaurus bauri
Broom, 1904

Algoasaurus (IPA: /ælˌgoʊəˈsɔrəs/; meaning "Algoa Bay reptile") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Tithonian-early Valanginian-age Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Upper Kirkwood Formation of Cape Province, South Africa. It was a neosauropod; although it has often been assigned to the Titanosauridae,[1][2] there is no evidence for this, and recent reviews have considered it to be an indeterminate sauropod.[3][4]

The type species, A. bauri, was named by Robert Broom in 1904 from a dorsal vertebra, femur and an ungual phalanx. The fossils were recovered in 1903 from a quarry by workmen who did not recognize them as dinosaur specimens, so many of the samples were made into bricks and thus destroyed.[5] The animal may have been around 9 m (30 ft) long when it died.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Romer, A.S. (1956). Osteology of the Reptiles. University of Chicago Press:Chicago, 1-772. ISBN 0-89464985-X.
  2. ^ Steel, R. (1970). Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Part 14. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart p. 1-87.
  3. ^ McIntosh, J.S. (1990). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria. University of California Press:Berkeley, 345-401. ISBN 0-520-06727-4.
  4. ^ Upchurch, P.M., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley, 259-322. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
  5. ^ Broom, R. (1904). On the occurrence of an opisthocoelian dinosaur (Algoasaurus bauri) in the Cretaceous beds of South Africa. Geological Magazine, decade 5, 1(483):445-447.
  6. ^ Lessem, D., and Glut, D.F. 1993. The Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia. Random House, Inc.:New York, p. 16. ISBN 0-679-41770-2.

[edit] External links

Dinosaurs Portal