Name:
Aegyptosaurus (Greek for "Egyptian lizard"); pronounced ay-JIP-toe-SORE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of northern Africa
Historical Period:
Middle Cretaceous (100-95 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 50 feet long and 12 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Long neck and tail; relatively long legs
About Aegyptosaurus:
As happened with many dinosaurs, the bones of Aegyptosaurus were destroyed in an Allied air raid on Munich toward the end of World War II (meaning paleontologists only had a dozen years to study its bones, since they were first unearthed in Egypt in 1932). Although the original specimen is no longer available, we know that Aegyptosaurus was one of the bigger titanosaurs (an offshoot of Jurassic sauropods), and that it may have been preyed on by the equally gigantic carnivore Spinosaurus.
