Sigilmassasaurus

Sigilmassasaurus (see-jil-MAH-sah-SAWR-us; "Sijilmassa lizard") is a genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur from the middle of the Cretaceous Period of northern Africa. Not much is known about this dinosaur, but it was almost definitely a bipedal carnivore like most other theropods.

Fossils of this dinosaur were found in the Tafilalt Oasis region of Morocco, near the site of the ancient city of Sijilmassa, for which it was named. Canadian paleontologist Dale Russell named Sigilmassasaurus in 1996, from the ancient city and the Greek word sauros ("lizard"). A single species was named, S. brevicollis, which is derived from the Latin brevis ("short") and collum ("neck"), because the neck vertebrae are very short from front to back. Russell also described another specimen as a possible second species of Sigilmassasaurus, although he chose not to name it due to its incomplete nature.

Sigilmassasaurus comes from sediments in southern Morocco, which are called by various names, including the Grés rouges infracénomaniens, Continental Red Beds, and lower Kem Kem Beds. These rocks date back to the Cenomanian, the earliest faunal stage within the Late Cretaceous Period, or about 100 to 94 million years ago (Sereno et al., 1996).