Eucnemesaurus

Eucnemesaurus (/juːkˌniːmɪˈsɔːrəs/; meaning "good tibia lizard", for its robust tibiae) is a basal sauropodomorphdinosaurgenus usually considered to be a synonym of Euskelosaurus. Recent study by Yates (2006), however, indicates that it is valid and the same animal as putative "giant herrerasaurid" Aliwalia.

Eucnemesaurus was named in 1920 by Egbert Cornelis Nicolaas van Hoepen. The type species is Eucnemesaurus fortis. The specific name means "strong" in Latin. It is based on holotypeTrM 119, a partial skeleton including vertebrae, part of a pubis, a femur, and two tibiae. The remains were found by Van Hoepen in the late Carnian-early Norian-age Upper TriassicLower Elliot Formation of the Slabberts district, Orange Free State, South Africa.^[1]Yates assigned the genus to the new family Riojasauridae with Riojasaurus, which was usually regarded as a melanorosaurid.^[2]

Fossil material now assigned to Eucnemesaurus was once placed in a separate genus and species, Aliwalia rex (the generic name was taken from the Aliwal Park Reserve in the Union of South Africa, where the first remains were found). The fossil evidence of this species was comparably small, with for many years only femoral fragments and a maxilla known, having been sent from South Africa to Austria in 1873 in a shipment with prosauropod bones.^[3]

El tamaño del fémur llevó a muchos paleontólogos a creer (junto con el maxilar claramente carnívoro) que Aliwalia era un dinosaurio carnívoro de tamaño notable para la época en que vivió. Habría sido comparable al de los grandes terópodos del Jurásico y el Cretácico , como el Allosaurus , que evolucionaron decenas de millones de años después de Aliwalia . Se creía que el material original tenía una gran similitud con el Herrerasaurus sudamericano , tanto que Peter Galton clasificó originalmente a Aliwalia en Herrerasauridae . ^{[ 4 ]}

Sin embargo, una reevaluación posterior del material ha demostrado que el maxilar asignado a Aliwalia no pertenece, a diferencia del otro material, a Eucnemesaurus , ya que es claramente de un carnívoro. Además, nuevo material demuestra claramente las afinidades de este último género con los sauropodomorfos. ^{[ 2 ]}