Gryponyx
Name: Gryponyx
(hooked claw).
Phonetic: Grip-on-iks.
Named By: Robert Broom - 1911.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Massopoda.
Species: G. africanus (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 5 meters long.
Known locations: South Africa - Upper Elliot
Formation.
Time period: Hettangian/Sinemurian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial skeleton.
Gryponyx
was first named by Robert Broom in 1911who when he described this
dinosaur thought that he was naming a theropod dinosaur. This
assessment was seconded in 1932 when Friedrich von Huene classified
Gryponyx in with the Carnosauria. By 1976 Gryponyx
was realised
to actually be a sauropodomorph
dinosaur (the group ancestral to the
later sauropods
and titanosaurs), however at this time Gryponyx
was
synonymised with a species of Massospondylus.
M. harriesi in a
study by Galton and Cluver. In 1981 M. Harriesi
was synonymised
in with another Massospondylus species, M.
carinatus. Then in
2004 a study by Vasconcelos and Yates resurrected Gryponyx
as a
distinct genus separate from Massospondylus, and
subsequent studies
referencing this decision have all supported the re-establishment of
the Gryponyx genus.
Gryponyx
was a mid-sized sauropodomorph dinosaur probably roaming about on all
fours, but able to adopt a bipedal posture when browsing upon
plants. While other species of Gryponyx have been
named, in modern
times only the type species has been considered to be valid.
Another
dinosaur named by Robert Broom in 1911 was Geranosaurus.
Further reading
- On the dinosaurs of the Stormberg, South Africa. - Annals of
the South African Museum 7(4):291-308. - Robert Broom -
1911.
- Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und
Geschichte. - Monographien zur Geologie und Pal�ontologie,
Series 1 4: 1–361. - Friedrich von Huene - 1932.
- Anchisaurus capensis (Broom) and a revision
of the
Anchisauridae (Reptilia, Saurischia). - Annals of the South
African Museum 69(6):121-159. - P. M. Galton &
M. A. Cluver - 1976.
- The prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus
Owen from
Zimbabwe: its biology, mode of life and phylogenetic significance.
- Occasional Papers of the National Museums and Monuments of
Rhodesia, Series B, Natural Sciences 6(10):689-840. - M.
R. Cooper - 1981.
- Sauropodomorph biodiversity of the upper Elliot Formation (Lower
Jurassic) of southern Africa. - Geoscience Africa, Abstract
Volume 2:670. - A. M. Yates - 2004.
- A New Basal Sauropod Dinosaur from the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan
Province, Southwestern China. - Acta Geologica Sinica (English
Edition) 84 (6): 1336–1342. - L� Junchang, Yoshitsugu
Kobayashi, Li Tianguang & Zhong Shimin - 2010.
- A new transitional sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic
of South Africa and the evolution of sauropod feeding and
quadrupedalism. - Proceedings of the Royal Society B 277
(1682): 787–794. - A. M. Yates, M. F. Bonnan,
J. Neveling, A. Chinsamy & M. G. Blackbeard -
2010.
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