Friday, 21st of February, 2025
The database has been scoured and today's daily dinosaur is...
GENUSAURUS
a small abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of France.
Pronunciation:
JEH-noo-SOR-us
Meaning: Knee lizard
Author/s: Accarie
et al. (
1995)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Sisteron, France
Chart Position: 396
Genusaurus sisterornis
(Knee lizard of Sisteron)Etymology
Genusaurus is derived from the Latin "genu" (knee) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), in reference to a bony crest (cnemial crest) at front and top of the shin (basically the knee area).
The
species epithet,
sisterornis, refers to Sisteron, the town near which it was found.
Discovery
The first remains of
Genusaurus were discovered in "greenish clays and glauconitic sands of Bevons", 4.25 km southwest of Sisteron Town in the Alps of Haute-Provence, France, by Hugues Accarie, Bernard Beaudoin and Gérard Friès in 1984. More fossils from the same individual were discovered during a short expedition by Friès, Jean-Guy Michard and Philippe Taquet in September 1986, and during two further visits by Michard. All efforts to
find the rest of the skeleton were in vain, and
it had likely been destroyed by erosion long before the initial discovery took place.
The
holotype (MNHN Bev-1) consists of a partial pelvis, left thigh, partial left shin and calf, one toe, and eight partial vertebrae.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Albian
Age range: 112-99
Vital Stats:
Est. max. length: 3.6 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 65 Kg
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Accarie H, Beaudoin B, Dejax J, Friès G, Michard J-G and Taquet P (1995) "Découverte d’un Dinosaure Théropode nouveau (
Genusaurus sisteronis n. g., n. sp.) dans l’Albien marin de Sisteron (Alpes de Haute-Provence, France) et extension au Crétacé inférieur de la lignée cératosaurienne" [
Discovery of a new theropod dinosaur (Genusaurus sisteronis n. g., n. sp.) in the marine Albian of Sisteron (Alps of Haute- Provence, France) and the extension of the ceratosaur lineage into the Lower Cretaceous].
Compte Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, Paris, série IIa, 320: 327-334. [English translation by Mathew Carrano.]
• Holtz Jr TR (2007) "
The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages".
• Carrano MT and Sampson SD (2008) "
The Phylogeny of Ceratosauria".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 6(2): 183–236. DOI: 10.1017/S1477201907002246.
• Paul GS (2010) "
The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs".
• Grillo ON and Delcourt R (2016) "Allometry and body length of abelisauroid theropods:
Pycnonemosaurus nevesi is the new king".
Cretaceous Research, 69: 71–89. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2016.09.001.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
GENUSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
‹
http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/GENUSAURUS›. Web access: 21st Feb 2025.
