Another new titanosaur taxon from the Late Cretaceous of Egypt

[VD231991]

Another Late Cretaceous titanosaur has been found in the land of pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies:

Gorscak, E.; Lamanna, M. C.; Schwarz, D.; Díez Díaz, V.; Salem, B. S.; Sallam, H. M.; and Wiechmann, M. F., 2023. A new titanosaurian (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Quseir Formation of the Kharga Oasis, Egypt. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2199810. doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2199810.

Igai semkhu now constitutes the second described sauropod from the Quseir Formation following the description of Mansourasaurus back in 2018. Unlike Mansourasaurus, however, its holotype remained forgotten for decades after it was found in 1977, but the available morphological data places it as a relative of European titanosaurs like Mansourasaurus. While the tetrapod fossil sites in the Baharija Oasis remain the most famous Mesozoic tetrapod localities in Egypt, the Quseir Formation and contemporaneous Dakhla Formation are critical to comprehending dinosaur evolution in parts of Africa besides Madagascar during the Campanian-Maastrichtian interval (the abelisaurid Chenanisaurus has the honor of being the first dinosaur from the Campanian-Maastrichtian timespan to be named from North Africa).

[Faelrin]

Thanks for sharing this find.

Here's an image from the paper showing where it was found, and the material they have for it:



As expected, fragmentary, but at least they have most of the material for the limbs, and a small section of the back. I'll check out the paper tomorrow, since it is rather late for me now, but this is certainly an interesting find. Does not appear to be paywalled either thankfully.