Pronunciation: cheb-SOR-us
Meaning: Teenager lizard
Author/s: Mahammed et al. (2005)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Naama Province, Algeria
Discovery Chart Position: #559
Chebsaurus algeriensis
Discovered mid-slope of Mount Rouis El Djir in 1991 and nicknamed "The Giant of Ksour" by Farida Mahammed in 2005, Chebsaurus is the most complete Middle Jurassic Algerian sauropod known. Thus far, it's the only genus-certain sauropod known solely from Algeria too, but at a mere nine meters in length it's far from a giant in sauropod terms. Fellow Algerian plant-muncher "Brachiosaurus" nougaredi—whose chimeric remains include potentially the longest sacrum of any known dinosaur—may be twice the size, but it's patiently waiting for a new name because it doesn't actually belong to the strictly North American genus Brachiosaurus. And Chebsaurus is just patiently waiting any kind of attention, as the full scientific study it was promised has yet to materialise.
Teenager lizard from AlgeriaEtymology
Chebsaurus is derived from "Cheb" (colloquial Arabic for "teenager", as the fossils found were believed to be from a juvenile) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard). The species epithet, algeriensis, means "from Algeria" in Latin.
Discovery
The fossils of Chebsaurus were discovered in the Aïssa Formation, Mount Rouis El
Djir, Oulakak, Sfissifa Daïra, Naama Wilaya, Occidental Saharan Atlas (The Atlas Mountains), Algeria, in 1999.The holotype (D001-01 to D001-78) is the partial skeleton and skull material of a juvenile.
