''Narindasaurus'' (meaning "lizard of
Narinda Bay") is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
turiasaurian sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...
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
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
Isalo III Formation
The Isalo III Formation is a geological formation in Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. It dates back to the Middle Jurassic.Weishampel et al., 2004, pp.542-543 The use of the term "Isalo III" is somewhat controversial as the two prior u ...
of
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
.
The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
, ''N. thevenini'' was formally described by Royo-Torres ''et al.'' in 2020.
The
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
, which consists of one specimen, is currently stored at the
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
and has been since 1906 or 1907.
Discovery and naming
The holotype was discovered in the Isalo III Formation before 1894 by
Joseph Thomas Last,
and were briefly noted on by Paul Lemoine in 1906.
[Lemoine P. 1906. Études géologiques dans le nord de Madagascar. In: Herman A, ed. Contributions à l’histoire géologique de l’Océan Indien. ''Paris: Librairie Scientifique'', 1–520.] Armand Thevenin (1861-1942) was the first to diagnose ''Narindasaurus''. In 1907, he placed it within the now obsolete species "''
Bothriospondylus madagascariensis''",
[Thevenin A. 1907. Paléontologie de Madagascar. IV Dinosauriens. ''Annales de Paléontologie'' 2: 121–136.]
/ref> which is now known as ''Lapparentosaurus
''Lapparentosaurus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic. Its fossils were found in Madagascar (Isalo III Formation). The type species is ''L. madagascariensis''.
Discovery and naming
In 1895 Richard Lydekker named a new s ...
''. It was briefly mentioned in 1972 and it was reevaluated in 2008 and 2010 as both a distinct taxon and a non-neosauropod eusauropod. It was classified as a turiasaur in 2015.
Gallery
File:Bothriospondylus madagascariensis omero madagascar.JPG, Right fibula (MNHN MAJ 429)
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q98873781
Turiasauria
Middle Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa
Bathonian life
Callovian life
Fossils of Madagascar
Fossil taxa described in 2020
Dinosaurs of India and Madagascar