Euskelosaurus

Name: Euskelosaurus ‭(‬good leg lizard‭)‬.
Phonetic: Yew-skel-o-sore-us.
Named By: Thomas Henry Huxley‭ ‬-‭ ‬1866.
Synonyms: Euscelosaurus‭.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Saurischia,‭ ‬Sauropodomorpha.
Species: E.‭ ‬browni‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Roughly about‭ ‬10‭ ‬meters long.
Known locations: Lesotho‭ ‬-‭ ‬Lower Elliot Formation.‭ ‬South Africa‭ ‬-‭ ‬Lower Elliot Formation.‭ ‬Zimbabwe‭ ‬-‭ ‬Mpandi Formation.
Time period: Norian of the‭ ‬Triassic to the Early Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Many‭ ‬individuals are known.




       Euskelosaurus may have been quite specialised for a sauropodomorph dinosaur since the shaft of the femur is physically twisted.‭ ‬This led‭ ‬in‭ ‬1979‭ ‬to‭ ‬a palaeontologist by the name of Heerden to suggest that Euskelosaurus might have been bow legged instead of just growing straight down like similar sauropodomorphs.‭ ‬The twisting of the femur may have been a way that Euskelosaurus adapted to cope with its large body,‭ ‬which at ten meters long would have been one of the largest of all the sauropodomorphs‭ (‬though some species such as Yunnanosaurus youngi grew even bigger‭)‬.‭ ‬Fossils of Euskelosaurus from Lesotho and South Africa are so far Late Triassic in age‭ (‬Norian to Rhaetian‭)‬,‭ ‬while Euskelosaurus fossils from Zimbabwe seem to be from the early Jurassic.

Further reading
- On some remains of large dinosaurian reptiles from the Stormberg Mountains, South Africa. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 23(1):1-6. - Thomas Henry Huxley - 1866.
-‭ ‬The morphology and taxonomy of Euskelosaurus‭ (‬Reptilia:‭ ‬Saurischia‭; ‬Late Triassic‭) ‬from South Africa.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum,‭ ‬4‭(‬2‭)‬:‭ ‬23-84.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Jacques van Heerden‭ ‬-‭ ‬1979.
- Biochronostratigraphy of the Lower Elliot Formation, southern Africa) and preliminary results on the Maphutseng dinosaur. Saurischia: Prosauropoda) from the same Formation of Lesotho, by Francois-Xavier Gauffre. In, The Nonmarine Triassic: Bulletin 3. pp. 147–9. - Spencer G. Lucas & Michael Morales (eds.). - 1993.
- The basicranium of a basal prosauropod from the Euskelosaurus range zone and thoughts on the origin of dinosaurs. - Journal of African Earth Sciences. 29 (1): 227–232. - Johann Welman - 1999.
- The death of a dinosaur: dismembering Euskelosaurus. Geoscience Africa. p. 715. - A. M. Yates - 2004.



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