| Amanzia | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Skeletal reconstruction, showing known bones in blue | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Turiasauria |
| Genus: | †Amanzia Schwarzet al.,2020 |
| Type species | |
| †Amanzia greppini (von Huene, 1922) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Amanzia (after Swiss geologistAmanz Gressly) is a genus ofturiasauriansauropoddinosaur from the Late JurassicReuchenette Formation inMoutier,Switzerland. Thetype and only species isAmanzia greppini, originally named as a species ofOrnithopsis andCetiosauriscus.[1]
Theholotype remains were originally discovered in the 1860s, by workers in a limestone quarry in theBasse Montagne. Some of the remains were sold to collectors; when geologistJean-Baptiste Greppin heard of this situation, he acquired all remaining bones and added them to the collection of theNaturhistorisches Museum Basel. Due to being found in association with thetheropod tooth MH 350 found nearMoutier that probably belonged toCeratosaurus or an indeterminate member of theCeratosauria, they were misidentified as belonging to a predatory dinosaur, for which Greppin in 1870 coined the name "Megalosaurus meriani" (named afterPeter Merian).[2] In 1920,Werner Janensch reassigned the tooth to the genusLabrosaurus. However, in 1922, Janensch realized the vertebrae belonged to a sauropod, so he wrote toFriedrich von Huene, who gave them the nameOrnithopsis greppini.[3] In 1927, von Huene assigned the species to his new genusCetiosauriscus.[4][5] From then on it has received little attention, with the few papers that mention it usually calling it anomen dubium without further comment.[1]
After its fossils were for the first time cleaned and prepared, in 2003 by Antoine Heitz, it was realized not to be closely related toCetiosauriscus.[6] In 2005, a master thesis by C. Hofer was dedicated to the subject.[7] In 2007, the rare presence of fossilised cartilage in a limb joint was reported.[8] In 2020, Daniela Schwarz, Philip D. Mannion, Oliver Wings and Christian A. Meyer gave it the genus nameAmanzia, after Swiss geologistAmanz Gressly, who was the first to discover dinosaur bones in Switzerland.Amanzia is itself the first sauropod named from Swiss remains.[1]
In 2020, nolectotype was selected, the naming authors maintaining the originalsyntype series indicated by von Huene, consisting of forty-nine bones. The Reuchenette Formation in which they were found dates from the earlyKimmeridgian, about 157 million years old. They include some neck vertebrae, many tail vertebrae and material from the shoulder girdle, the pelvis and limbs. Seventy-five additional sauropod specimens in the collection of the museum, from the same site as the syntypes, were in 2020 referred to the species. These also include some limited skull material and a broken tooth. The bones are not articulated, have generally been strongly compressed and had often been damaged when being forcefully removed from the rock. Von Huene had already concluded that the material represented two or three individuals; in 2020 this was increased to a minimum of four. Of these, individuals "A" and "B" have about the same size, while an individual "C" is 15% longer and an individual "D" 20% shorter. None of the specimens are clearly juvenile.[1]
