Sigilmassasaurus

Sigilmassasaurus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous, 100–94 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Middle neck vertebra CMN 50791
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
(unranked):	Tetanurae
Family:	Spinosauridae
Subfamily:	Spinosaurinae
Genus:	Sigilmassasaurus Russell, 1996
Species
S. brevicollis Russell, 1996 (type)
Synonyms
?Spinosaurus maroccanus Russell, 1996

Sigilmassasaurus (pron.:"SEE-jill-MAH-sah-SORE-us"; "Sijilmassa lizard") is an extinct genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 100 to 94 million years ago during the middle of the Cretaceous Period in what is now northern Africa. Sigilmassasaurus was a moderately-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, like most other theropods.

Fossils of this dinosaur were recovered at the Kem Kem Formation 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.