New basal sauropod Tazoudasaurus naimi (advance online publication)

[bh480@scn.org]

dinosaur@usc.edu
From: bh480@scn.org
New basal sauropod Tazoudasaurus naimi (advance online 
publication).

In case this has not been mentioned here, the Articles in 
Press for the Comptes Rendus Paleovol has a new dinosaur:

Ronan Allain, Najat Aquesbi, Jean Dejax, Christian Meyer, 
Michel Monbaron, Christian Montenat, Philippe Richir, 
Mohammed Rochdy, Dale Russell and Philippe Taquet .
A basal sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of 
Morocco.
Comptes Rendus Palevol (online advance publication)
Available online 30 April 2004. 

Abstract
Continental strata of Early Jurassic age are seldom 
exposed, and little is known of the history of sauropod 
dinosaurs prior to the Middle Jurassic radiation of 
neosauropods. Well-preserved skeletons and skulls have not 
been recovered from strata older than the Middle Jurassic. 
Here we report, in the Early Jurassic of the Moroccan High 
Atlas, the discovery of the skeleton, including cranial 
material, of a new vulcanodontid sauropod. Tazoudasaurus 
naimi n.g., n.sp. represents with Vulcanodon the sister 
group of the eusauropods and the most complete basal 
sauropod material available to date. To cite this article: 
R. Allain et al., C. R. Chimie 00 (2004). 
Text highlights:
Sauropodomorpha Huene, 1932 
Sauropoda Marsh, 1878 
Vulcanodontidae Cooper, 1984 
Tazoudasaurus naimi gen. et sp. nov. 
Etymology. Generic name is from the type locality of 
Tazouda, plus sauros, Greek for lizard. Specific name from 
naimi, Arabic, masculine, for slender, referring to the 
small size of the holotype. 
Holotype. To 2000-1, `Mus?e des Sciences de la Terre', 
Rabat, Morocco, partially articulated skeleton and cranial 
material including complete left mandible with teeth, 
quadrate, jugal, postorbital, parietal, frontal and 
exoccipital. 
Referred specimen. To 2000-2, associated remains of a 
juvenile skeleton. 
Locality and horizon. Douar of Tazouda near Toundoute 
village in the Province of Ouarzazate, High Atlas of 
Morocco. Toundoute overthrust, Toarcian continental 
detrital series concordantly overlying early to middle 
Lower Jurassic marine carbonates. 
Diagnosis. A primitive sauropod displaying the following 
autapomorphies: a thin bony plate extending from 
posterodorsal margin of postorbital; distal chevrons 
forked with unfused anterior and posterior processes, 
prominent crest on the lateral surface of the proximal end 
of the fibula. Moreover, Tazoudasaurus exhibits a unique 
combination of sauropod synapomorphies (see below) and 
sauropodomorph symplesiomorphies including: 20 dentary 
teeth with denticulate crown margins; anterior end of the 
dentary only slightly expanded relative to depth of 
dentary at midlength ;dentaries meet in a V-shaped 
symphysis; posterior fossa absent on quadrate; lesser 
trochanter present laterally on femur; flat pubic apron; 
plantar surface of pedal unguals II-III flattened. 
...............
As the most primitive and relatively completely known 
sauropod, Tazoudasaurus augments our understanding of 
basal sauropod features, and resets some previously 
ambiguous eusauropod synapomorphies to the base of the 
sauropod clade.Nevertheless, like Vulcanodon, 
Tazoudasaurus still shares many primitive characters with 
prosauropods, including the absence of quadratic fossa, 
the slightly expanded anterior end of the dentary, the 
high dentary-tooth count, the V-shaped tooth rows, the non-
overlapping tooth crowns, the lesser trochanter on the 
femur, the anteriorly projecting tibial cnemial crest and 
the long pedal phalanges.