Aegyptosaurus
Aegyptosaurus meaning 'Egypt’s lizard', for the country in which it was discovered is a genus of sauropod dinosaur believed to have lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the mid- and late-Cretaceous Period. Like most sauropods, it had a long neck and a small skull. The animal's long tail probably acted as a counterweight to its body mass. Aegyptosaurus was a close relative of Argentinosaurus, a much larger dinosaur found in South America.
Aegyptosaurus was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932. Its fossils have been found in the Bahariya Formation of Egypt, Niger, and in several different locations in the Sahara Desert. All known examples were discovered before 1939. The fossils were stored together in Munich, but were obliterated when an Allied bombing raid destroyed the museum where they were kept in 1944, during World War II. Only fragments have survived until today.
The holotype consists of three caudal vertebrae, a partial scapula, and some limb bones; of which was discovered in Egypt in 1932. In 2010 Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at 15 meters, and its weight at 7 tonnes.
