Spinophorosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Niger during the Middle Jurassic period. The first two specimens were excavated in the 2000s by German and Spanish teams under difficult conditions. The neck is one of the most completely known among sauropods, containing 13 vertebrae. The braincase was short, deep, and broad, and the neuroanatomy was intermediate between that of basal sauro podomorphs and the more derived neosauropods.
About Spinophorosaurus in brief
Spinophorosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Niger during the Middle Jurassic period. The first two specimens were excavated in the 2000s by German and Spanish teams under difficult conditions. The subadult holotype specimen is estimated to have been around 13 m in length, whereas the paratype was about 14 m long. The neck is one of the most completely known among sauropods, containing 13 vertebrae. The braincase was short, deep, and broad, and the neuroanatomy was intermediate between that of basal sauro podomorphs and the more derived neosauropods. Features of the vestibular apparatus suggest that vision and coordinated eye, head, and neck movements were important in Spinophorososaurus. 3D models of the skeleton have been used to test its range of motion. One study suggests it may have been a high browser, and another examined possible mating postures. The anatomy, age, and location of specimens indicate that important developments in sauroPod evolution may have occurred in North Africa, possibly controlled by climatic zones and plant biogeography. A Spanish science and humanitarian project, PALDES, aims to combine palaeontological research with education programs in the southern Agadez Region. This included the improvement of infrastructure and tourism, including the construction of a new museum in Tadibene for the people of the region. Early in 2005, German explorers Ulrich Joger and Edgar Sommer explored the semi-deserts south of AgadeZ.
Sommer is a director of CARGO, a specialised organisation for improving the specialised education system for the local people. He informed local people about the occurrence of large bones in the region, while a local biologist and biologist had informed him about the large bones of the bones. The bones were found along a cliff known as the Falaise de Tiguidit in the Agadez Region. In 2003, the PALDES project was conducting excavations in the south of the Agadeze Region. In 2005, the Spanish team found partial Jobaria skeletons in the field as a tourist attraction. This led to the description of new genera from Lower Cretaceous rocks, most prominently the iguanodontian Ouranosaurus. An older succession of rocks, the Tiourarén Formation, was explored by Paul Sereno, who conducted a large-scale excavation campaign in Niger between 1999 and 2003. The formation is now thought to be of a much older Middle Jurassic age. It was formed by deposits from rivers and lakes in a great river-valley system. It is thought that the dinosaurs may have lived in the Irhazer Shale, a geological formation thought tobe Middle Jurassic in age. The dorsal vertebraes had multiple small air-filled internal chambers, a feature typical of later more-derived sauroPods. The tail was powered by strong musculature and had a rear section that was rather rigid due to long and overlapping chevron bones.
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This page is based on the article Spinophorosaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
