Gigantosaurus
| Gigantosaurus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  |
|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Node: | †Anchisauria |
| Infraorder: | †Sauropoda |
| Genus: | †Gigantosaurus Seeley, 1869 |
| Species: | †G. megalonyx |
| Binomial name | |
| Gigantosaurus megalonyx Seeley, 1869 |
|
Gigantosaurus (meaning "giant lizard") is a poorly known sauropod dinosaur genus from England.[1] The type species, Gigantosaurus megalonyx, was named and described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869.[2] Its type, BMNH 32498-99, consists of several separately discovered sauropod bones found near Stretham, among which two casts of the "large claw" the specific name, derived from Greek megalos and onyx, refers to. Other remains included a cervical vertebra, two caudal vertebrae, the distal end of a tibia, a fibula and a osteoderm. It was synonymised to Ornithopsis humerocristatus by Richard Lydekker in 1888 and to Pelorosaurus by Friedrich von Huene in 1909. Today it is considered a nomen dubium.
Because of these references Eberhard Fraas, in 1908, incorrectly assumed the name was available for other species and he used it, despite it being preoccupied, for African material, totally unrelated to the British finds.[3] As a result the name Gigantosaurus factored into the convoluted taxonomic history of the African dinosaurs Barosaurus, Tornieria, and Janenschia. A discussion of this can be found in the main Tornieria article.
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Seeley, H.G., 1870, Index to the Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary System of Strata, arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. III. Geological Magazine 7
- ^ Fraas, E. 1908, "Ostafrikanische dinosaurier". Palaeontographica, 55:105-1
- F. v. Huene. 1927. Sichtung der Grundlagen der jetzigen Kenntnis der Sauropoden [Sorting through the basis of the current knowledge of sauropods]. Eclogae Geologica Helveticae 20:444-470
- R. Steel. 1970. Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1-87
- F. v. Huene. 1909. Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier [Sketch of the systematics and origins of the dinosaurs]. Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1909:12-22
- Martill, D.M., Naish, D. & Earland, S. 2006. Dinosaurs in marine strata: evidence from the British Jurassic, including a review of the allochthonous vertebrate assemblage from the marine Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Great Britain. In: Colectivo Arqueologico y Paleontologico Salense, (ed.) Actas de las III Jornadas Intrernacionales sobre Paleontologı´a de Dinosaurios y su Entorno, 16–17 Sep. 2004. Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, 47–84.
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