Gigantoscelus

Gigantoscelus ("giant shin") is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa.

Gigantoscelus Temporal range: Early Jurassic, 199–189 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Genus:	†Gigantoscelus
Species:	†G. molengraaffi
Binomial name
†Gigantoscelus molengraaffi van Hoepen, 1916

Classification

It was first described by van Hoepen in 1916 on the basis of TrM 65, a distal femur from the Bushveld Sandstone Formation of South Africa.^[1] It was later synonymized with Euskelosaurus by van Heerden (1979),^[2] but was subsequently treated as a nomen dubium in the 2nd edition of the Dinosauria.^[3]

Stratigraphy

The type horizon of Gigantoscelus, the Bushveld Sandstone, was thought to be Late Triassic, but is now considered Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) in age.^[4]