Thursday 28 November 2013

Irritator challengeri

The fossil consisting of the posterior part of the skull was badly damaged and artificially lengthened with plaster to make it look like more complete by amateur fossil hunters, thus the name. The fossil Angaturama limai from the same formation and consisting of the anterior portion of the skull curiously complementary to the Irritator fossil is probably a synonym and may even belong to the same original specimen. This spinosaurid from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil, related to the North African Spinosaurus but much smaller, was characterized by an unusually narrow skull.

Name
Irritator challengeri
Authority
Martill, Cruikshank, Frey, Small & Clarke, 1996
Meaning of generic name
Irritator
[Meaning of specific name
of "Challenger" or "of a challenger"
Meaning - possibly - of name
Posing an irritating challenge]
Size
Length: 7-8 m
Remains
Partial skull
Age and Distribution
Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation (Albian), Chapada do Araripe, northeastern Brazil. .
Classification
Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Spinosauroidea Spinosauridae
Further Reading
D. M. Martill, A. R. I. Cruickshank, E. Frey, P. G. Small, and M. Clarke. 1996. A new crested maniraptoran dinosaur from the Santana Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil. Journal of the Geological Society, London 153:5-8.

Sues, H.-D., Frey, E., Martill, D. M., and Scott, D. M., 2002, Irritator challengeri, a spinosaurid (Dinosauria: theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 22, n. 3, p. 535-547.
Synonyms
Angaturama limai Kellner and Campos, 1996
Image by Nobu Tamura (click to enlarge)
Irritator challengeri:

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