Aegyptosaurus

Aegyptosaurus, meaning "Egypt's Lizard", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in Africa around 95 million years ago during the Middle Cretaceous period. Like most sauropods, it had a long neck and a small skull. The animal's long tail probably acted as a counterweight to its body mass. Its tail also ended in a whip-like structure that it used to defend itself against predatory dinosaurs such as Rugops, Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus. 

Aegyptosaurus was a close relative of Argentinosaurus, a much larger dinosaur that lived in South America at about the same time. This suggests a possible land bridge between Africa and South America during the Cretaceous. 

Aegyptosaurus was discovered and named by a German paleontologist named Ernst Stromer in 1932.Stromer, E. (1932a). Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltierreste der Baharîje-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 11. Sauropoda. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, Neue Folge, 10: 1-21. Its fossils were found in Egypt, Niger, and in several different locations in the Sahara Desert. All known male and female specimens were discovered before 1939. The fossils were stored together in Munich, but were destroyed when an Allied bombing raid hit the museum in 1944, during World War II.
The type species is Aegyptosaurus baharijensis, named after the Bahariya Formation in Egypt, where the first fossils were found. In the series Monsters Resurrected, it was named as Paralititan, its contemporary.

References

Category:Dinosaurs of Africa
Category:Cretaceous dinosaurs
Category:Titanosaurs