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Concept
Ouranosaurus
Summary
Ouranosaurus is a genus of herbivorous basal hadrosauriform dinosaur that lived during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous of modern-day Niger and Cameroon. Ouranosaurus measured about long and weighed . Two rather complete fossils were found in the Elrhaz Formation, Gadoufaoua deposits, Agadez, Niger, in 1965 and 1970, with a third indeterminate specimen known from the Koum Formation of Cameroon. The animal was named in 1976 by French paleontologist Philippe Taquet; the type species being Ouranosaurus nigeriensis. The generic name is a combination of ourane, a word with multiple meanings ("an Arabic name that signifies valor, courage, recklessness"; the Tuareg name of the desert monitor given by the Tuareg Berbers of Niger & Algeria), and sauros, the Greek word for lizard. The specific epithet nigeriensis alludes to Niger, its country of discovery (in Latin, the adjectival suffix -iensis means "originating from"). And so, Ouranosaurus nigeriensis could be interpreted as "brave lizard originating from Niger".
Five French palaeontological expeditions were undertaken in the Gadoufaoua region of the Sahara Desert in Niger between 1965 and 1972 and led by French palaeontologist Philippe Taquet. These deposits come from GAD 5, a layer in the upper Elrhaz Formation of the Tégama Group, which was deposited during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous. On the first expedition, lasting from January–February 1965, eight iguanodontian specimens were discovered at the "niveau des Innocents" site, east of the Emechedoui wells. An additional two skeletons were discovered southeast of Elrhaz in the "Camp des deux Arbres" locality, which were given the field numbers GDF 300 and GDI 381. Both were collected in the February–April 1996 expedition, the former including a nearly complete but scattered skeleton, and the latter a skeleton that was two-thirds preserved. The skeletons then in 1967 were brought to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, where they were prepared.
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