Open Paleo

Kholumolumo

Peyre de Fabrègues & Allain, 2019

From the Basuto (Sesotho) name for a type of dragon-like creature that the local Basuto people associated with dinosaur fossils.

227.3–205.7 million years ago Norian, Late Triassic
Late Triassic stages

Kholumolumo , formerly "Kholumolumosaurus" or "Thotobolosaurus", is an extinct genus of massopodan sauropodomorph dinosaur, which was closely related to Sarahsaurus, from the lower Elliot Formation of Maphutseng, Lesotho. The type species, Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum was formally described in 2020.

Under dispute

Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum is recovered as an early-branching massopodan, sandwiched between Plateosauridae and Massospondylidae (Peyre de Fabrègues and Allain, 2019), as the sister taxon of Sarahsaurus.

Diagnosis

  1. Very short and stout tibia with circumference to length ratio of 0.53
  2. Tibia diaphysis becomes thinner distally with straight anterior and posterior margins
  3. Fourth metatarsal elongated relative to tibia with proximally larger transverse end
  4. Posterior cervical vertebra particularly anteroposteriorly short and dorsoventrally tall with centrum elongation of 1.2
  5. Anterior dorsal vertebra with neural spine base anterior to diapophysis anterior margin
  6. Sacral vertebral centrum very short anteroposteriorly with centrum ventral length to anterior height of 0.7
  7. Scapula with two marked ridges on lateral surface of blade: one posterodorsal and one anterodorsal

Species

Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum Peyre de Fabrègues & Allain, 2019

Type species

Named for the Ellenberger family — brothers Paul and François Ellenberger, who discovered and excavated the bonebed in Lesotho in the 1950s and 1960s.

Holotype
MNHN.F.LES381m , Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
Material
Complete right tibia
Horizon
lower Elliot Formation, Norian, Late Triassic , 227.3–205.7 million years ago
Locality
Maphutseng, Mohale's Hoek, Lesotho Peyre de Fabrègues and Allain (2019) place the Maphutseng bone bed in the lower part of the lower Elliot Formation, "suggesting a Norian age (ca. 210 Ma)", against a reading of it as uppermost lower Elliot and "latest Triassic age (ca. 205 Ma)".

Synonyms of the genus

Name Type Reason
Kholumolumosaurus nomen ex dissertatione Name appears in a dissertation, which does not meet ICZN publication requirements; referable to Kholumolumo. Per Olshevsky's Dinosaur Genera List.
Thotobolosaurus nomen nudum Unofficial designation for the specimen that was ultimately described as Kholumolumo.

References

  1. Peyre de Fabrègues, C.; Allain, R. (2019). Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum, gen. et sp. nov., a new early sauropodomorph from the lower Elliot Formation (Upper Triassic) of Maphutseng, Lesotho. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 39(6). Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1732996 peyredefabrègues2019a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026b