Blikanasaurus is a
genus of
sauropodomorphdinosaur from the late
Triassic of
South Africa. The generic name Blikanasaurus is derived from Greek, meaning "lizard from Blikana". The species name cromptoni is taken from the surname of A.W. "Fuzz" Crompton, an American paleontologist who led numerous field expeditions in
Elliot Formation outcrop localities in
South Africa. Blikanasaurus is only known from partial
hindlimb bones that were recovered from the lower
Elliot Formation (LEF) in the
Eastern Cape.[1]
History of discovery
Blikanasaurus was first discovered by a partial
hindlimb (epipodium and pes) found in the lower
Elliot Formation (LEF) at the foot of Blikana mountain in
Herschel,
Eastern Cape of
South Africa in
c. 1965.[2][3] In the early 2000s, a second specimen - consisting of only a right
metatarsal - was recovered from lower
Elliot Formation deposits on the farm, Damplaats, in
Ladybrand of the eastern
Free State.[4][5][6] A possible
ilium that has been attributed to Blikanasaurus was found recently, although its attribution to Blikanasaurus remains to be confirmed.
Description
As the two known Blikanasaurus specimens are extremely incomplete, very little is understood of this
sauropodomorphtaxon. The only information that has been deduced is from the bones of its
hindlimb anatomy, which are heavily built. This suggests that Blikanasaurus was thickly set and robust.[7][8][9]
Classification
Due to its robust build, Blikanasaurus is hypothesized to have been an obligate
quadruped[citation needed], unlike what is characteristic of more
basalsauropodomorphs. Due to this feature, Blikanasaurus was thought initially to be a
basalsauropod. Blikanasaurus is now considered to be a
basalsauropodomorph[citation needed]; however, due to the lack of complete specimens, little remains known about this enigmatic
taxon.[10] Some paleontologists claimed a case to group Blikanasaurus within the
familyBlikanasauridae, a family named by
Galton and van Heerden in 1985,[11] however, this family has not been formally accepted due to it lacking definitive taxa. The cladogram below displays the currently accepted
systematics between Blikanasaurus and other
sauropodomorphs.[12]
^Knoll, Fabien (2004). "Review of the tetrapod fauna of the 'Lower Stormberg Group' of the main Karoo Basin (southern Africa) : Implication for the age of the Lower Elliot Formation". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 175: 73–83.
doi:
10.2113/175.1.73.
^Charig, A. J.; Attridge, J.; Crompton, A. W. (1965). "On the origin of the sauropods and the classification of the Saurischia". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 176 (2): 197–221.
doi:
10.1111/j.1095-8312.1965.tb00944.x.
^Galton, Peter M.; Van Heerden, Jacques (1985). "Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. And n. Sp.,representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the upper triassic of South Africa". Geobios. 18 (4): 509–516.
doi:
10.1016/S0016-6995(85)80003-6.
^Yates, Adam M. (2003). "A definite prosauropod dinosaur from the Lower Elliot Formation (Norian: Upper Triassic) of South Africa". Palaeontologia Africana. 39.
hdl:
10539/16435.
^Yates, Adam M. (2008-04-04). "A second specimen of Blikanasaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) and the biostratigraphy of the lower Elliot Formation". Palaeontologia Africana. 43.
hdl:
10539/13807.
^McPhee, Blair W.; Choiniere, Jonah N. (2016). "A hyper-robust sauropodomorph dinosaur ilium from the Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa: Implications for the functional diversity of basal Sauropodomorpha". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 123: 177–184.
Bibcode:
2016JAfES.123..177M.
doi:
10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2016.08.004.
^Galton, Peter M.; Van Heerden, Jacques (1985). "Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. And n. Sp.,representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the upper triassic of South Africa". Geobios. 18 (4): 509–516.
doi:
10.1016/S0016-6995(85)80003-6.
^Apaldetti, Cecilia; Martínez, Ricardo N.; Cerda, Ignatio A.; Pol, Diego; Alcober, Oscar (2018). "An early trend towards gigantism in Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2 (8): 1227–1232.
doi:
10.1038/s41559-018-0599-y.
hdl:11336/89332.
PMID29988169.
S2CID49669597.