Gigantosaurus
Gigantosaurus ("giant lizard") is a little-known sauropod dinosaur from today's England , which is one of the herbivorous Brachiosauridae and thus one of the largest land animals in the history of the earth. However, the validity of the genus established by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869is doubtful ( noun dubium ), since the associated species are now assigned to other sauropod genera.
Gigantosaurus was estimated to be up to 30 meters long , making it the largest dinosaur in Europe. The skin could have been covered with small, hexagonal plates. Its fossils were found in deposits of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous .
All fossils found so far, which served as the basis for the respective species description of the genus Gigantosaurus , have since been identified as the remains of representatives of other genera and the species have been reassigned accordingly.
- Gigantosaurus africanus (E. Fraas, 1908) is now Barosaurus africanus
- Gigantosaurus dixeyi (Haughton, 1928) is now Malawisaurus dixeyi
- Gigantosaurus megalonyx (Seeley, 1869) is now Pelorosaurus humerocristatus
- Gigantosaurus robustus (E. Fraas, 1908) is now Janenschia robusta
The name Gigantosaurus is often confused with the similar-sounding Giganotosaurus , a giant predatory dinosaur .