Zarafasaura

Zarafasaura is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid known from the Oulad Abdoun Basin of Morocco.[1]

Zarafasaura
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian
Mounted skeleton, Wyoming Dinosaur Center
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: †Sauropterygia
Order: †Plesiosauria
Family: †Elasmosauridae
Genus: †Zarafasaura
Vincent et al., 2011
Species:
†Z. oceanis
Binomial name
†Zarafasaura oceanis
Vincent et al., 2011

Description
Skull

Zarafasaura is known from the holotype OCP-DEK/GE 315, an articulated incomplete dorsoventrally crushed skull and mandible and from the paratype OCP-DEK/GE 456, a complete mandible. The holotype was collected in the Sidi Daoui area, from the Upper CIII level of the upper Cretaceous (latest Maastrichtian stage) Phosphates of Morocco.[1]

Etymology

Zarafasaura was first named by Peggy Vincent, Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, Baâdi Bouya, Mbarek Amaghzaz and Saïd Meslouh in 2011 and the type species is Zarafasaura oceanis. The generic name is derived from zarafa (زرافة), Arabic for "giraffe" (it refers to the name given by the local population to the plesiosaurs found in the phosphates) and saurus, Greek for "lizard". The specific name is derived from oceanis, Latin for "daughter of the sea".[1]

See also

References
  1. Peggy Vincent, Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, Baâdi Bouya, Mbarek Amaghzaz and Saïd Meslouh (2011). "Zarafasaura oceanis, a new elasmosaurid (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Maastrichtian Phosphates of Morocco and the palaeobiogeography of latest Cretaceous plesiosaurs". Gondwana Research. 19 (4): 1062–1073. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2010.10.005.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)


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