| Algoasaurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Femur, vertebra and scapula (holotype) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Genus: | †Algoasaurus Broom, 1904 |
| Species: | †A. bauri |
| Binomial name | |
| †Algoasaurus bauri Broom, 1904 | |
Algoasaurus (/ælˌɡoʊ.əˈsɔːrəs/; "Algoa Bay reptile") is agenus ofsauropoddinosaur from theEarly Cretaceous (Berriasian to earlyValanginian ages)Upper Kirkwood Formation ofCape Province,South Africa, specifically near a town calledDespatch. Only one species,A. bauri, is known.[1][2]
The holotype, a cervicalvertebra,femur, anungual phalanx and ascapula, was recovered in 1903 from aquarry inDespatch, Eastern Cape which exposed part of theUpper Kirkwood Formation[3] by workmen who did not recognize them as dinosaur specimens, so many of the bones, probably including the rest of the once near-completeholotype, were made intobricks and thus destroyed;[1] it is possible that bricks in theNelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality may still contain parts of theAlgoasaurus holotype. According to Broom (1904), thePort Elizabeth Museum collected "a few fragments of vertebrae and ribs" during another attempt to collect any remaining bones at the site.
Thetype species,A. bauri, was named byRobert Broom in 1904 and he likenedAlgoasaurus toBrontosaurus andDiplodocus.[1] Broom gave much of his fossil collection to theAmerican Museum of Natural History in 1913, including the ungual phalanx from the holotype, listed as specimen AMNH FR 5631.[2]
Canudo & Salgado (2003) and Ibiricuet al. (2012) both consideredAlgoasaurus to have belonged toRebbachisauridae based on the shape of theneural arch of the cervical vertebra,[4][5] but MacPheeet al. (2016) disagreed with the rebbachisaurid affinities ofAlgoasaurus, stating that, although the shape of the vertebra suggestsAlgoasaurus belonged to Rebbachisauridae, the shape of the scapula says otherwise, so they could not identifyAlgoasaurus further thanEusauropoda and they also could not locate the rest of the holotype,[3] although they did find specimen SAM-PK-K1500 in the collections of theIziko Museum inCape Town to possibly be the lost caudal vertebra pertaining to the holotype or possibly another specimen ofAlgoasaurus unrelated to the holotype,[3] but SAM-PK-K1500 is yet to be described in detail, so it can not yet be confidently assigned to any genus.
The animal may have been around 9 m (30 ft) long when it died,[6] although this can not be confirmed as the holotype is very fragmentary. Before it was lost, the femur was estimated to have been up to 50 centimetres (20 in) when complete.[1]
Algoasaurus was aeusauropod; although it has often been assigned to theTitanosauridae,[7][8] there is no evidence for this, and recent reviews have considered it to be anindeterminate sauropod.[9][10] It was then believed to have been a member ofRebbachisauridae[4][5] until it was reclassified in 2016 as an indeterminateeusauropod.[3]
Sedimentological analysis of the holotype assemblage suggests it came from a horizon transitioning into a drier climate.[11] Other animals from the Kirkwood Formation include the iguanodontianIyuku, the stegosaurParanthodon, the ornithomimosaurNqwebasaurus, and several other unnamed dinosaurs.
