Ouranosaurus
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| iOuranosaurus |
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 Ouranosaurus nigeriensis
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| Ouranosaurus nigeriensis Taquet, 1976 |
Ouranosaurus (meaning "brave (monitor) lizard") was an unusual iguanodont that lived during the early Cretaceous (early Aptian) about 110 million years ago in what is now Africa. Ouranosaurus measured about 7 m (24 ft) long and weighed about 4 tons. Two complete fossils were found in the Echkar (or El Rhaz) Formation, Gadoufaouna deposits, Agadez, Niger, in 1966 and the animal was named in 1976 by French paleontologist Philippe Taquet.
Like Spinosaurus, a well-known meat-eating dinosaur that lived around the same time, Ouranosaurus had a large sail on its back, supported by thick long spines, that spanned its entire back and tail. The sail may have been used to control its body temperature. When Ouranosaurus was hot, it would face away from the sun and in the direction of the wind that blew away the excess heat from its body. When cold, it would have the sail face the sun to warm up its body.
The sail may have also been used for identification, as Ouranosaurus may have lived in herds for protection against predators like Suchomimus and Carcharodontosaurus. Possibly brightly colored, its sail may have also been used to attract females or to intimidate male rivals.
On each hand it bore a thumb claw that was much smaller than the thumb claw of Iguanodon. It had an unusual head with a much longer snout that its close relative Iguanodon and that resembled a hadrosaur, a duckbilled dinosaur.
Ouranosaurus was an herbivore that had no teeth in the front portion of its jaws, but had large batteries of teeth on the sides of the jaws used to chew up plant food with its sharp beak.
[edit] Classification
Although it shares some similarities with Iguanodon (such as a thumb spike), Ouranosaurus is closer to the line of Hadrosaurids, though it is not a true hadrosaur. The type species is Ouranosaurus nigeriensis.
[edit] References
- Taquet, P., 1976, "Geologie et paleontologie du gisement de Gadoufaoua (Aptien du Niger)", Cahier Paleont., C.N.R.S. Paris, 1-191.
