''Gigantoscelus'' ("giant shin") is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the Early Jurassic of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Classification

It was first described by van Hoepen in 1916 on the basis of TrM 65, a distal femur from the

Bushveld Sandstone Formation The Bushveld Sandstone is a geological formation dating to roughly between 201 and 189 million years ago and covering the Carnian to Norian stages. The Bushveld Sandstone is found in Transvaal, South Africa and is a member of the Stormberg Group. ...

of South Africa. It was later synonymized with ''

Euskelosaurus ''Euskelosaurus'' ("good leg lizard") is a sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa and Lesotho. Fossils have only been recovered from the lower Elliot Formation in South Africa and Lesotho, and in one locality in Zimbabwe. ...

'' by van Heerden (1979), but was subsequently treated as a ''nomen dubium'' in the 2nd edition of the ''Dinosauria''.

Stratigraphy

The type horizon of ''Gigantoscelus'', the

Bushveld Sandstone The Bushveld Sandstone is a geological formation dating to roughly between 201 and 189 million years ago and covering the Carnian to Norian stages. The Bushveld Sandstone is found in Transvaal, South Africa and is a member of the Stormberg Group. ...

, was thought to be Late Triassic, but is now considered Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) in age.Smith RMH, Eriksson PG, Botha WJ. A Review of the Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Environments of the Karoo-Aged Basins of Southern Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 1993;16:143–169. .

References

Sauropodomorphs Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa Fossils of South Africa Fossil taxa described in 1916 {{Sauropodomorph-stub