Gigantosaurus
Name:
Gigantosaurus
(giant lizard).
Phonetic: Gy-gant-o-sore-us.
Named By: Harry Govier Seeley - 1869.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda.
Species: G. megalonyx.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains.
Known locations: England, Cambrdgeshire, near
Stretham - Kimmeridge Clay Formation?
Time period: Kimmeridgian of the Jurassic?
Fossil representation: Partial remains including a
cervical (neck) vertebra, a dorsal (back) vertebra, two
caudal (tail) vertebrae, partial fibula and tibia (lower hind
leg bones), an osteoderm and two casts of large claws.
Gigantosaurus
is a little known and currently dubious genus of sauropod
dinosaur.
The fossils that are assigned to the genus could come from a
sauropod, but they were all found disarticulated and separately,
raising the notion that they could be from more than one individual.
The state of preservation also means that it would also be difficult
to attribute further remains to the genus. Because of this other
palaeontologists have considered Gigantosaurus to
be a synonym of other
genera, with Richard Lydekker suggesting Ornithopsis
in 1888, and
Friedrich von Huene proposing Pelorosaurus in
1909. Today,
Gigantosaurus is usually considered to be a Nomen
dubium, though the
osteoderm is interesting in that if the osteoderm came from a
sauropod-like dinosaur, then the remains might be those of a
titanosaur or close relative of. Many titanosaurs, most famously
Saltasaurus
are known to have had osteoderm armour in their skin.
In
1908 the German palaeontologist Eberhard Fraas named fossils of an
African sauropod as Gigantosaurus. Fraas did this
upon the grounds
that he thought that Seeley had not provided a complete enough
description as well as the English Gigantosaurus
being considered as a
synonym to other genera. Fraas was wrong to do this on both counts as
under international conventions governing the naming of animals, you
cannot use a name that has already been listed, including even if it
is a synonym to something else. To do so would just sow the seeds
for confusion and make it harder for future researchers to do their
work. In 1911 the African fossils were renamed as a new genus by
Richard Sternfeld as Tornieria.
This was about the end of the
Gigantosaurus/Tornieria
connection, but the taxonomic history of
Tornieria became quite convoluted afterwards and is
worth reading in
its own right (details on the main Tornieria
page).
Gigantosaurus
should not be confused with the very similarly named Giganotosaurus,
one of the largest predatory dinosaurs of all time.
Further reading
- 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 - H. G.
Seleey - 1870.
- Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier
[Sketch of the systematics and origins of the dinosaurs] - F.
v. Huene - 1909.
- 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
- D. M. Martill, D. Naish & S. Earland -
2006.
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