Ultrasaurus
From Latin ultra (beyond, exceeding) and Greek sauros (lizard); meaning "ultra lizard", reflecting Kim's inference that the animal exceeded Supersaurus in size.
Ultrasaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur discovered by Haang Mook Kim in South Korea. However, the name was first used unofficially (as a nomen nudum) in 1979 by Jim Jensen to describe a set of giant dinosaur bones Jensen discovered in the United States. Because Kim published the name for Kim's specimen before Jensen could do so officially, George Olshevsky renamed the specimen as Ultrasauros. Jensen's giant sauropod was later found to be a chimera, and the type remains are now assigned to Supersaurus.
Species
Ultrasaurus tabriensis Kim, 1983 Nomen dubium
Type species
From Tabri (Tabri station, near the type locality at Bongam pass) and Latin -ensis ("from"); meaning "from Tabri".
- Holotype
- DGBU-1973 , Department of Geology, Busan National University
- Material
- Partial bone identified by Kim as a right ulna (preserved length 70 cm, estimated ~118 cm complete); later workers reinterpret the element as a humerus, yielding much smaller body-size estimates and rendering the genus a nomen dubium.
- Horizon
- lower Gugyedong Member, Hupyeongdong Formation, Albian, Early Cretaceous , 113.2–100.5 million years ago
- Locality
- roadside cliff near Bongam pass, 1.6 km southwest of Tabri station, Geumseong-myeon, Euiseong-gun, North Gyeongsang, South Korea Kim (1983) places the bed about 47 m above the Gumidomari Conglomerate, in what the paper calls the Gugyedong Formation; Choi and Kwon (2019) rank the Gugyedong as the upper member of the Hupyeongdong Formation.
References
-
Kim, H. M. (1983). Cretaceous dinosaurs from South Korea. Journal of the Geological Society of Korea 19(3): 115-126. doi:10.14770/jgsk.1983.19.3.115
Erects Ultrasaurus tabriensis on DGBU-1973 from the Gugyedong Formation at Bongam pass; Kim classified the genus in Brachiosauridae and estimated 40 m / 120 t. In Korean with English abstract.
kim1983a -
Choi, T.; Kwon, M. G. (2019). 쇄설성 저어콘 U-Pb 연대 측정을 이용한 백악기 의성소분지 사암의 퇴적시기와 기원지 [Depositional age and provenance of the sandstones in the Cretaceous Euiseong subbasin inferred by detrital zircon U-Pb age dating]. Journal of the Geological Society of Korea 55(5): 551-581. doi:10.14770/jgsk.2019.55.5.551
Ranks the Gugyedong as the upper member of the Hupyeongdong Formation.
choi2019a