Pronunciation: re-BASH-i-SOR-us
Meaning: Ait Rebbach lizard
Author/s: Lavocat (1954)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Gara Sba, Morocco
Discovery Chart Position: #195
Rebbachisaurus garasbae
Rebbachisaurus is a diplodocoid sauropod from the Aoufous Formation in the Kem Kem region of
southeastern Morocco. Its shoulder blade and a single vertebra were initially described, very briefly and without illustrations, by Rene Lavocat in 1954. Then it was neglected for six decades until Jeffrey Wilson and Ronan Allain painstakingly cleaned its holotype, added a jigsaw of fragmentary materials, and subjected them to some 21st-century scrutiny.
Long thought to be the large side of moderate-size for a sauropod based on a single, 1.45 meter tall dorsal (back) vertebra, Rebbachisaurus probably maxed out at 12 tons judging by the thickness of its upper arm and the fact that most of said vertebra's height was a spine. Furthermore, the vertebrae were assumed to afford its spine great mobility but probably didn't, because they sport features that would actually limit movement.
Like all diplodocoids, Rebbachisaurus would have had a long neck, a small head, peg-like teeth and a long, possibly whip-ended tail. What makes it unusual, is the tall spine on each of its dorsal vertebrae that would give it a ridged back. Palaeontologists have pointed to its suspicious similarity to Argentina's Rayososaurus to support their theory that Africa and South America were still joined by a land bridge during the Early Cretaceous. But the same could be said for Africa and Europe because the closest relatives of Rebbachisaurus appear to be Nigersaurus (from Niger) and Demandasaurus (from Spain).
Long thought to be the large side of moderate-size for a sauropod based on a single, 1.45 meter tall dorsal (back) vertebra, Rebbachisaurus probably maxed out at 12 tons judging by the thickness of its upper arm and the fact that most of said vertebra's height was a spine. Furthermore, the vertebrae were assumed to afford its spine great mobility but probably didn't, because they sport features that would actually limit movement.
Like all diplodocoids, Rebbachisaurus would have had a long neck, a small head, peg-like teeth and a long, possibly whip-ended tail. What makes it unusual, is the tall spine on each of its dorsal vertebrae that would give it a ridged back. Palaeontologists have pointed to its suspicious similarity to Argentina's Rayososaurus to support their theory that Africa and South America were still joined by a land bridge during the Early Cretaceous. But the same could be said for Africa and Europe because the closest relatives of Rebbachisaurus appear to be Nigersaurus (from Niger) and Demandasaurus (from Spain).
(Aït Rebbach's lizard from Gara Sba)Etymology
Rebbachisaurus is derived from "Aït Rebbach" (the Berber tribe of Morocco, on whose territory the holotype was found) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, garasbae, refers to its discovery at Gara sba.
Discovery
The remains of Rebbachisaurus were discovered in the Aoufous Formation at Gara Sba (aka Gara es Sbaa, Gara Sbâa), Er Rachida (formerly known as "Ksar-es-Souk"), Morocco, by Rene Lavocat in 1954. The holotype (MNHN) is a partial skeleton, including ten ribs, the right shoulder blade, eleven vertebrae, the sacrum, a humerus, and two bones probably belonging to the pelvis.
