Adratiklit
Adratiklit (meaning "mountain lizard") is an extinct genus of herbivorous stegosaurian dinosaur that lived on the supercontinent Gondwana during the Middle Jurassic period (168–164 million years ago). The genus contains a single species, Adratiklit boulahfa. Its remains were found in the El Mers Group, probably in the El Mers II Formation (Bathonian), near Boulahfa, south of Boulemane, Fès-Meknes, north Morocco.
| Adratiklit Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Speculative Reconstruction | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Suborder: | †Stegosauria |
| Family: | †Stegosauridae |
| Genus: | †Adratiklit Maidment et al., 2020 |
| Species: | †A. boulahfa |
| Binomial name | |
| †Adratiklit boulahfa Maidment et al., 2020 | |
Eurypodan dinosaurs, in particular stegosaurs, were diverse and abundant in Laurasia (nowadays the northern continents) during the Jurassic, but their remains are extremely rare in deposits of Gondwana, (nowadays the southern continents). Nevertheless, the existence of fragmentary remains and trackways in the deposits of Gondwana indicate the presence of eurypodan taxa there. Adratiklit is the first described eurypodan taxon from North Africa, as well as the second oldest known stegosaur (being slightly younger than Bashanosaurus), with the possible exception of Isaberrysaura and "Ferganastegos", which may be as old as Adratiklit.