Pronunciation: cheb-SOR-us
Meaning: Teenager lizard
Author/s: Mahammed et al. (2005)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Naama Province, Algeria
Acta Ordinal: #564
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. Chebsaurus, meanwhile, 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 first fossils of Chebsaurus were discovered in the Aïssa Formation, halfway up the northern slope of Mount Rouis El
Djir near Oulakak, the Daïra (District) of Sfissifa, the Wilaya (Province) of Naama, in the Ksour Mountain range of the Occidental Saharan Atlas, Algeria, by Farida Mahammed in 1999.The holotype (D001-01 to D001-78) is the partial skeleton of a juvenile, including vertebrae, incomplete girdle and limb bones, and skull fragments. A second juvenile specimen (D001-79 to D001-118), including vertebral remains and skull material, was referred to Chebsaurus in 2010.
The two specimens were discovered side by side.
Preparator
Renaud Vacant from the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN).
