Gigantoscelus
Extinct genus of dinosaurs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gigantoscelus ("giant shin") is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa.
| Gigantoscelus Temporal range: Early Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Genus: | †Gigantoscelus |
| Species: | †G. molengraaffi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Gigantoscelus molengraaffi van Hoepen, 1916 | |
Classification
It was first described by van Hoepen in 1916 on the basis of TrM 65, a distal femur from the Bushveld Sandstone Formation of South Africa.[1] It was later synonymized with Euskelosaurus by van Heerden (1979),[2] but was subsequently treated as a nomen dubium in the 2nd edition of the Dinosauria.[3]
Stratigraphy
The type horizon of Gigantoscelus, the Bushveld Sandstone, was thought to be Late Triassic, but is now considered Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) in age.[4]
