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''Eucnemesaurus'' (; meaning "good tibia lizard", for its robust tibiae) is a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur genus usually considered to be a synonym of ''Euskelosaurus''. Recent study by Yates (2006), however, indicates that it is valid and the same animal as putative "giant herrerasaurid" ''Aliwalia''. ''Eucnemesaurus'' was named in 1920 by Egbert Cornelis Nicolaas van Hoepen. The type species is ''Eucnemesaurus fortis''. The specific name means "strong" in Latin. It is based on holotype TrM 119, a partial skeleton including vertebrae, part of a pubis, a femur, and two tibiae. The remains were found by Van Hoepen in the late Carnian-early Norian-age Upper Triassic Lower Elliot Formation of the Slabberts district, Orange Free State, South Africa. Yates assigned the genus to the new family Riojasauridae, with ''Riojasaurus'', usually regarded as a melanorosaurid. ==''Aliwalia''== Fossil material now assigned to ''Eucnemesaurus'' was once placed in a separate genus and species, ''Aliwalia rex'' (the generic name was taken from the Aliwal Park Reserve in the Union of South Africa, where the first remains were found). The fossil evidence of this species was comparably small, with for many years only femoral fragments and a maxilla known. The size of the femur led many palaeontologists to believe (along with the clearly carnivorous maxilla), that ''Aliwalia'' was a carnivorous dinosaur of remarkable size for the age in which lived. It would have been comparable to that of the large Jurassic and Cretaceous theropods, such as ''Allosaurus'', that evolved tens of millions of years after ''Aliwalia''. The original material was believed to bear a strong similarity to the South American ''Herrerasaurus'', so much so that ''Aliwalia'' was originally classified in Herrerasauridae by Peter Galton. However, later re-evaluation of the material has shown that the maxilla assigned to ''Aliwalia'' does not, unlike the other material, belong to ''Eucnemesaurus'', as it is clearly from a carnivore. In addition, new material clearly demonstrates this latter genus' sauropodomorph affinities. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eucnemesaurus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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