Gigantoscelus ("giant shin") is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa.
Classification It was first described by van Hoepen in 1916 on the basis of TrM 65, a distal femur from the Bushveld Sandstone Formation of South Africa.E. C. N. Van Hoepen. 1916. De ouderdom der Transvaalsche Karroolagen [The age of the Transvaal Karoo beds]. Verhandelingen van het Geologisch-Mijnbouwkundig Genootschap voor Nederland en Koloniën. Geologische Serie 3:107-117. It was later synonymized with Euskelosaurus by van Heerden (1979),J. v. Heerden. 1979. The morphology and taxonomy of Euskelosaurus (Reptilia: Saurischia; Late Triassic) from South Africa. Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum 4(2):23-84 but was subsequently treated as a nomen dubium in the 2nd edition of the Dinosauria.P. M. Galton and P. Upchurch. 2004. Prosauropoda. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 232-258.
Stratigraphy The type horizon of Gigantoscelus, the Bushveld Sandstone, was thought to be Late Triassic, but is now considered Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) in age.Smith RMH, Eriksson PG, Botha WJ. A Review of the Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Environments of the Karoo-Aged Basins of Southern Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 1993;16:143–169. .
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