Pronunciation: me-LAN-or-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Black Mountain Lizard
Author/s: Haughton (1924)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Transkei, South Africa
Discovery Chart Position: #143
Melanorosaurus readi
(Reid's Black Mountain Lizard)Etymology
Melanorosaurus is derived from the Greek "melas" (black), "oros" (mountain) and "sauros" (lizard), in reference to its discovery on "Thaba 'Nyama" (Black Mountain).
The species epithet, readi, honors Mr. B. Read, former Principal of the Bensonvale Training School, "of whose kindness, display of interest, and hospitality i have a lively recollection" (Haughton, 1924).
Discovery
The first fossils of Melanorosaurus were discovered in the
Elliot Formation (Stormberg group, Karoo supergroup) on the north slope of Thaba 'Nyama (Black Mountain) "between Josana's Hoek and Josana's Nek", Herschel District, Transkei, eastern Cape Province, South Africa.
The holotype includes two syntypes; (1) SAM 3449 is a left tibia (shin), a left fibula (calf), a right ilium and left pubis (hip bones), metatarsals (foot bones), and "some vertebrae" from Haughton's original description that transmogrified into "a right ulna and both radii" for Galton et al's reappraisal of its remains in 2005, and (2) SAM 3450 which includes a right femur (thigh) and half of a right humerus (upper arm or "funny bone").
Another, somewhat smaller specimen (SAM 3532), discovered at Rooi Nek between Kromme Spruit and Majuba Nek and assigned to Melanorosaurus by Haughton at the time of description, includes a scapula (shoulder blade) and humerus that Van Heerden erroneously referred to the holotype in 1979, plus a left ilium and metatarsal III. Truth be told, no-one seems to know if this belongs to Melanorosaurus or not.
NM QR3314 (a juvenile specimen, including a skull) and NM QR1551 (all four types of vertebrae and various limb bones belonging to two individuals) have also been assigned here.
