Sigilmassasaurus

Sijilmassa lizard

• Sigilmassa · Place name (Arabic, via Latinised spelli · Sijilmassa, a historic city in southeastern Morocco
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines Sijilmassa, a medieval trading city in southeastern Morocco, with the Greek word for lizard. The city lies near the area where the first fossils, mostly neck vertebrae, were found. The species name brevicollis means "short neck", referring to the proportions of those vertebrae.

Named by

Russell

Year named

1996

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Cenomanian

Found in

Kem Kem Beds, southeastern Morocco

A spinosaurid theropod known mainly from neck vertebrae, with the type species S. brevicollis. Its status is debated. Some researchers (e.g. Ibrahim et al. 2014) consider it a junior synonym of Spinosaurus. Others (e.g. Evers et al. 2015) treat it as a distinct valid genus. It is listed here as accepted, but this is not settled.