#amanzia

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Another #paleostream sketch!

Amanzia is approaching a large Machimosaurus that came to close to its nest. Amanzia is a dwarf Sauropod from Switzerland.

Bitemarks on its bones suggest that crocodiles like Machimosaurus occasionally hunted or scavenged on them.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round Two: Kholumalumo vs Amanzia

Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum

Artwork by @alphynix, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Kholumolumo (giant reptilian dragon from Sotho folklore) named for Paul and François Ellenberger (the original excavators of the fossils)

Time: 210 million years ago (Norian stage of the Late Triassic)

Location: Lower Elliot Formation, Lesotho

Kholumolumo is an old friend with a new name. Its previous informal name, “Thotobolosaurus” meaning “trash heap reptile”, was truly magnificent and became one of the great memes of Ye Olde 2010s Palaeo Tumblr! Needless to say it was a bittersweet moment to see our old buddy finally published but lose its iconic name in the process. Rest in peace, Trash Heap Lizard.

The reason it wound up with that name is because the fossils were in fact found basically right next to the local rubbish dump of the village of Maphutseng in 1955. The trash pile turned out to be sitting on a bone bed of around five to ten animals, and over the course of several years they were excavated and moved to the University of Cape Town. Unfortunately, and perhaps appropriately to the name, the subsequent study of these fossils ended up being a complete trash fire. Specimens went missing that have never been found, professional relationships fell apart, and the animal itself wasn’t mentioned in the literature until 1970 when it was dropped into a discussion on the stratigraphy of the Elliot formation and named “Thotobolosaurus mabeatae” without any description of the fossils. This made the name “Thotobolosaurus” a nomen nudum (naked name) and thus invalid.

Finally in 2020 all the tribulation paid off and it received a proper initial description, although many fossils that weren’t lost in the chaos still remain under study and could be the subject of future papers. It’s nice to see our beloved trash heap of a dinosaur finally coming into its own!

Amanzia greppini

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Named for 19th-century geologists Amanz Gressly and Jean-Baptiste Greppin

Time: 157 million years ago (Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic)

Location: Reuchenette Formation, Switzerland

Amanzia has been through a real odyssey of classifications. First discovered c. 1860, it was mistaken for a theropod and named Megalosaurus meriani in the 1870s, reclassified as a sauropod and named Ornithopsis greppini in 1922, then re-reclassified as a species of Cetiosauriscus in 1927, and then basically ignored ever since. Poor guy’s got an identity crisis now.

The actual fossils weren’t properly cleaned until 2003, and subsequent study in 2020 named it and revealed it was probably a turiasaur, an early-branching group of large sauropods that was unknown before the 2000s, so nobody working on it in the century and a half beforehand could have had any idea what they’d really found!

Kholumalumo or Amanzia?

Kholumalumo

Amanzia

Voting ended onMar 16, 2023

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round One: Bagualia vs Amanzia

Bagualia (left) or Amanzia (right)?

Bagualia

Amanzia

Voting ended onMar 9, 2023

Factfiles:

Bagualia alba

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Wild horse of dawn

Time: 179 million years ago (Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic)

Location: Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Spain

Described in 2020, Bagualia is currently the oldest known eusauropod (“true” sauropods), marking the point in sauropod evolutionary history where they began to get Huge. The beginning of the expansion of eusaruopod diversity also pretty closely marks the end of all other sauropodomorph lineages, which makes Bagualia an early indicator of a massive faunal shift that was about to occur. It’s also known from an almost entirely complete skull, which is a real rarity among sauropod species and always an exciting find!

Amanzia greppini

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Named for 19th-century geologists Amanz Gressly and Jean-Baptiste Greppin

Time: 157 million years ago (Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic)

Location: Reuchenette Formation, Switzerland

Amanzia has been through a real odyssey of classifications. First discovered c. 1860, it was mistaken for a theropod and named Megalosaurus meriani in the 1870s, reclassified as a sauropod and named Ornithopsis greppini in 1922, then re-reclassified as a species of Cetiosauriscus in 1927, and then basically ignored ever since. Poor guy’s got an identity crisis now.

The actual fossils weren’t properly cleaned until 2003, and subsequent study in 2020 named it and revealed it was probably a turiasaur, an early-branching group of large sauropods that was unknown before the 2000s, so nobody working on it in the century and a half beforehand could have had any idea what they’d really found!

DMM Round One Masterpost