A giant sauropod dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous mangrove deposit in Egypt.
We describe a giant titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt, a unit that has produced three Tyrannosaurus-sized theropods and numerous other vertebrate taxa. Paralititan stromeri is the first tetrapod reported from Bahariya since 1935. Its 1.69-meter-long humerus is longer than that of any known Cretaceous sauropod. The autochthonous scavenged skeleton was preserved in mangrove deposits, raising the possibility that titanosaurids and their predators habitually entered such environments.
Smith
J B
JB
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, 240 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316, USA. smithjb@sas.upenn.edu
Lamanna
M C
MC
Lacovara
K J
KJ
Dodson
P
P
Smith
J R
JR
Poole
J C
JC
Giegengack
R
R
Attia
Y
Y
D000818:Animals; D001824:Body Constitution; D001835:Body Weight; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D004534:Egypt; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D006811:Humerus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012104:Reptiles / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D013131:Spine / Q000033:anatomy & histology