Saurischian dinosaurs from the Elliot Formation of South Africa: Anatomy, ecology, and evolution
Final Report Abstract
The Elliot Formation of South Africa spans the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and has thus greatest potential to elucidate the evolution of terrestrial vertebrate faunas over this crucial limit. The objective of the current project was to provide new data on the dinosaur fauna, especially saurischian dinosaurs from this formation and evaluate their significance for our understanding of early dinosaur evolution. Numerous specimens were collected during two fieldwork campaigns in 2008 and 2009, in both the Lower and Upper Elliot Formation, mainly in the north-western part of Eastern Cape Province. Material from the Lower Elliot Formation represents exclusively large, basal sauropodomorphs, whereas the Upper Elliot Formation has yielded numerous remains of basal sauropodomorphs, but also specimens of theropod and ornithischian dinosaurs as well as crocodylomorphs. A survey of theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Elliot Formation showed that previous identifications of the coelophysoids Syntarsus rhodesiensis from this formation were erroneous. However, at least three different taxa of theropods are present in this formation, one of which can be described as a new taxon. All theropods represent basal, nontetanuran taxa, but. In general, theropod remains are extremely rare if compared to remains of sauropodomorph dinosaurs.
Publications
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2008. Archosaur evolution during the Jurassic: a southern perspective. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 63:557-585
Rauhut, O. W. M., and A. López-Arbarello
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2011. How to get big in the Mesozoic: the evolution of the sauropodomorph body plan; pp. 119-149 in N. Klein, K. Remes, C. T. Gee, and P. M. Sander (eds.), Biology of the sauropod dinosaurs: understanding the life of giants. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis
Rauhut, O. W. M., R. Fechner, K. Remes, and K. Reis
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2013. A pathological tail in a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from South Africa: evidence of traumatic amputation? Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33:224-228
Butler, Richard J.; Yates, Adam M.; Rauhut, Oliver W. M. & Foth, Christian
