Mansourasaurus

Mansourasaurus shahinae

Resurrected on:

25 feb. 2020

Genus information

Mansourasaurus was a fairly large sauropod that lived during the Upper Cretaceous epoch of Egypt and belonged to the Titanosauria clade. The species is known from a subadult with a total length of about 10 m and weighed about 5.000 kg. An adult would have been larger in size, but size estimations are hard to make. Mansourasaurus is closely related to other titanosaurs from Eurasia, which indicates that migration from Eurasia towards Africa occured after the tectonic separation of South America. This counter hypotheses that the African mainland was completely isolated during the beginning of the Upper Cretaceous epoch.

Family:

Distribution:

Epoch:

Titanosauria

Africa

Upper Cretaceous

Species information

The genus of Mansourasaurus consists of a single species: M. shahinae. In the past, two other species have been described for the genus, but both were eventually assigned as synonyms from M. shahinae. Fossils have been found in the Egyptian Western Desert and its discovery was considered quite significantly. Very few sauropod remains have been unearthed in Africa due to the rich fossils beds are not located near ground level.

Species:

Paleontologist:

Distribution:

Epoch:

Mansourasaurus shahinae

Sallam et al. 2018

Africa

Upper Cretaceous

Length:

Height:

Weight:

10.0 m

3.0 m

5.000 kg

Reference:

Sallam, H. M., Gorscak, E., O’Connor, P. M., El-Dawoudi, I. A., El-Sayed, S., Saber, S., ... & Lamanna, M. C. (2018). New Egyptian sauropod reveals Late Cretaceous dinosaur dispersal between Europe and Africa. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(3), 445.