Elrhazosaurus
Sign in to saveElrhazosaurus (meaning "Elrhaz lizard") is a genus of basal iguanodontian dinosaur, known from isolated bones found in Early Cretaceous rocks of Niger. These bones were initially thought to belong to a species of the related dryosaurid Valdosaurus, but have since been reclassified.
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3 sectionsContents
- Discovery and history
- Paleoecology and paleobiology
- References
Elrhazosaurus (meaning "Elrhaz lizard") is a genus of basal iguanodontian dinosaur, known from isolated bones found in Early Cretaceous rocks of Niger. These bones were initially thought to belong to a species of the related dryosaurid Valdosaurus, but have since been reclassified.
==Discovery and history== Elrhazosaurus is based on MNHN GDF 332, a left thigh bone collected by Philippe Taquet from the upper part of the Elrhaz Formation of Gadoufaoua in the Ténéré Desert, Agadez, Niger. This rock unit dates to the late Aptian stage, approximately 115 million years ago. The bone was designated as the type specimen of a new species of Valdosaurus (V. nigeriensis) by Peter Galton and Taquet in 1982. It was differentiated from the type species V. canaliculatus by the locations of trochanters and other details. Because V. canaliculatus is known from Europe, the presence of a related species in central Africa was interpreted as evidence for a land connection between the two continents.