EMBASAURUS
a dubious theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Kazakhstan.
Pronunciation: EM-bah-SOR-us
Meaning: Emba River lizard
Author/s: Riabinin (
1931)
Synonyms: Embasasaurus (Carroll, 1987)
First Discovery: Atyrau Oblysy, Kazakhstan
Discovery Chart Position: #158
Embasaurus minax
(Emba River Lizard)Etymology
Embasaurus is derived from "Emba" (a Kazakhstan river) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
In Latin, the
species epithet,
minax, can mean threatening, menacing, jutting out, projecting and overhanging. Sadly, Riabinin didn't specify which or why. We're pretty sure, though, that he wasn't referring to Minax, a brand name of metoprolol, which is a selective beta1-blocker that reduces the effects of stress hormones on the heart.
Synonyms
Embasasaurus (Carroll, 1987). A lapsus calami or "slip of the pen".
Discovery
The only remains of
Embasaurus were discovered in the "Neocomian Sands" of the Emba River basin at Mount Koi-Kara, Gurievsk, Atyrau Oblysy, Kazakhstan, by I. I. Krom in 1926.
The
holotype (unnumbered) is two partial vertebrae, one from the back and one from the neck.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Berriasian-Hauterivian
Age range: 140-130 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Riabinin AN (1931) "Pozvonki dinozavra iz nizhnego mela Prikaspiyskikh stepey [Two dinosaurian vertebrae from the Lower Cretaceous of Transcaspian Steppes]".
Zapiski Rossiyskogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva [Proceedings of the Russian Mineralogical Society], 60(1): 110-113.
• Nessov LA (1995) "Dinozavri severnoi Yevrazii: Novye dannye o sostave kompleksov, ekologii i paleobiogeografii [
Dinosaurs of Northern Eurasia: new data about assemblages, ecology and paleobiogeography]".
Institute of Earth's Crust, St. Petersburg State University, pp 1-156.
• Currie PJ (2001) "Theropods from the Cretaceous of Mongolia". In Benton, Shishkin, Unwin and Kurochkin "
The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia".
• Weishampel DB, Barrett PM, Coria RA, Le Loueff J, Xu X, Zhao X, Sahni A, Gomani EMP and Noto CN (2004) "Dinosaur distribution". Page 563 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Carrano MT, Benson RBJ and Sampson SD (2012) "
The phylogeny of Tetanurae
(Dinosauria: Theropoda)".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 10(2): 211-300.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
EMBASAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/EMBASAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
