Paralititan

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Paralititan
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous

life restoration of Paralititan stromeri

Conservation status

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Sauropoda
Family:	Titanosauridae
Genus:	Paralititan
Species:	P. stromeri

Binomial name

Paralititan stromeri
Smith et al, 2001

Paralititan stromeri was a giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt. The fossil represents the first tetrapod reported from the Bahariya Formation since 1935. Its 1.69 m long humerus is longer than that of any known Cretaceous sauropod. The autochthonous, scavenged skeleton was preserved in tidal flat deposits containing fossil mangrove vegetation. The mangrove ecosystem it inhabited was situated along the southern shore of the Tethys Sea. Paralititan is the first dinosaur demonstrated to have inhabited a mangrove biome.

Paralititan is one of the most massive dinosaurs ever discovered, with an estimated weight of 65-80 tonnes. Like other titanosaurs, it had a wide-gauge stance and may have possessed osteoderms for defense. It is possible that Paralititan was hunted by large predatory dinosaurs such as Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus.

[edit] Etymology

Paralititan stromeri means "Ernest Stromer's tidal titan". It was named by Joshua B. Smith, Matthew C. Lamanna, Kenneth J. Lacovara, Peter Dodson, Jennifer B. Smith, Jason C. Poole, Robert Giegengack and Usery Attia in 2001 to honor Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach, a German paleontologist and geologist who found dinosaurs in this area in the early 1900s.

[edit] References

Smith, J., Lamanna, M.C., Lacovara, K.J., Dodson, P., Smith, J.R., Poole, J.C., Giegengack, R., and Y. Attia (2001). A Giant Sauropod Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Mangrove Deposit in Egypt. Science, 292:1704–1706.