A new genus and species of titanosaurian dinosaur being named Igai semkhu has been described by Midwestern University paleontologist Eric Gorscak and his colleagues.
Igai semkhu roamed our planet during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, approximately 75 million years ago.
This species belongs to a diverse group of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs called Titanosauria.
The group is known for large body sizes, long necks and wide stance, and includes species ranging from the largest known terrestrial vertebrates to ‘dwarfs’ no bigger than elephants.
“Igai semkhu constitutes one of the most informative dinosaurs yet recovered from the latest Cretaceous of Afro-Arabia,” Dr. Gorscak and co-authors said.
The partial postcranial skeleton of Igai semkhu — five dorsal vertebrae and 12 appendicular elements – was found in the deposits of the Quseir Formation, east of Maks El-Bahari, Kharga Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt.
“Igai semkhu is the second titanosaurian species to be described from the uppermost Cretaceous Quseir Formation of the Western Desert oases of Egypt,” the paleontologists said.
Comparisons of the dimensions of known limb elements of Igai semkhu to more complete titanosaurs suggest that the individual was relatively medium-sized for the clade, perhaps 10-15 m (33-49 feet) in estimated total body length.
Igai semkhu was probably slightly larger than Mansourasaurus shahinae, the other named titanosaur species from the Quseir Formation and nearby the Dakhla Oasis, the total body length of which is estimated at 8-10 m (26-33 feet).
“Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, all known titanosaurians from Campanian-Maastrichtian deposits in northern Africa (i.e., Igai, Mansourasaurus, and an unidentified form from Morocco) and the then-conjoined Arabian Peninsula were small to medium-sized for sauropod dinosaurs,” the researchers said.
“The same is true for most Campanian-Maastrichtian titanosaurs from southern…
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