Open Paleo

Embasaurus

Riabinin, 1931 EM-bah-SOR-us Nomen dubium

From the Emba River (western Kazakhstan), the type locality, and Greek sauros (lizard); meaning "Emba lizard".

143.1–137.1 million years ago Berriasian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Embasaurus is a dubious genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period. It is known from two vertebrae found in the Neocomian Sands of Kazakhstan. As it is known only from fragmentary remains, Embasaurus is considered by some to be a possible nomen dubium. It was named after the Emba River, and it is believed to have lived during the Berriasian stage, around 140 million years ago. According to the Theropod Database, a personal website designed by Mickey Mortimer, further research may suggest that Embasaurus may be a basal tyrannosauroid. George Olshevsky, however, considered Embasaurus to be a megalosaurid, closely related to Magnosaurus, Megalosaurus, and Torvosaurus.

Under dispute

Embasaurus minax is a nomen dubium based on two vertebrae, suggested to be a megalosaurid (Olshevsky, 1991).

Species

Embasaurus minax Riabinin, 1931 Nomen dubium

Type species

From Latin 'minax' meaning 'threatening/menacing'.

Holotype
CNIGR 1/3759, CNIGR 2/3759 , F.N. Chernyshev Central Museum of Geological Exploration
Material
Two vertebrae.
Horizon
Berriasian, Early Cretaceous , 143.1–137.1 million years ago
Locality
Mount Koi-Kara, Atyrau, Kazakhstan Riabinin (1931) gives the horizon only as Neocomian sands, a lithological description of beds of that age rather than a named unit, and none of the later works cited for this taxon erects a formation for them.

References

  1. Riabinin, A. N. (1931). Two dinosaurian vertebrae from the Lower Cretaceous of Transcaspian Steppes. Zapiski Rossiyskogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva (ser. 2) 60: 110-113.

    Erects Embasaurus minax on two vertebrae from the Neocomian Sands of the Emba petroleum-bearing region, western Kazakhstan.

    riabinin1931a
  2. Olshevsky, G. (1991). A revision of the parainfraclass Archosauria Cope, 1869, excluding the advanced Crocodylia. Mesozoic Meanderings 2: 1-196.

    Suggested Embasaurus is a megalosaurid.

    olshevsky1991a
  3. Nessov, L. A. (1995). Dinozavri severnoi Yevrazii: Novye dannye o sostave kompleksov, ekologii i paleobiogeografii [Dinosaurs of northern Eurasia: new data about assemblages, ecology, and paleobiogeography]. Institute for Scientific Research on the Earth's Crust, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 1-156.

    Gives the type locality as Mount Koi-Kara.

    nessov1995a