Gigantosaurus Explained

Gigantosaurus is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation of England.^[1] The type species, Gigantosaurus megalonyx, was named and described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869.^[2]

History

Its syntype series consists of several separately discovered sauropod bones found in Cambridgeshire in 1862, including two caudal (tail) vertebrae (CAMSM J.29477 and CAMSM J.29478), the distal end of a tibia (CAMSM J.29483), a cast of the right radius (CAMSM J.29482), a cast of phalanx (CAMSM J.29479) and an osteoderm (CAMSM J.29481).^[3]

It was synonymised to Ornithopsis humerocristatus by Richard Lydekker in 1888^[4] and to Pelorosaurus by Friedrich von Huene in 1909.^[5] Today it is considered a nomen dubium. Because of these references Eberhard Fraas incorrectly assumed in 1908, the name was available for other species and he used it, despite it being preoccupied, for African material totally unrelated to the British finds.^[6] As a result, the name Gigantosaurus factored into the convoluted taxonomic history of the dinosaurs Barosaurus, Tornieria, and Janenschia. A discussion of this can be found in the main Tornieria article.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Re: A nomenclatural problem . Thomas R.. Holtz . 1995-08-02 . 2006-04-17 . 2016-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225636/http://dml.cmnh.org/1995Aug/msg00582.html . dead.
2. Seeley, H.G., (1869). 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
3. 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 Arqueológico y Paleontológico Salense, (ed.) Actas de las III Jornadas Internacionales sobre Paleontología de Dinosaurios y su Entorno, 16–17 Sep. 2004. Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, 47–84.
4. Lydekker, R. (1888). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. Containing the Orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. British Museum (Natural History):London, 1-309.
5. 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
6. Fraas, E. (1908), "Ostafrikanische dinosaurier". Palaeontographica, 55:105-1