A dinosaur fauna from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of northern Sudan

摘要

A dinosaur fauna from the Cenomanian of northern Sudan (Wadi Milk Formation) is described. It comprises at least nine, probably ten to eleven taxa: a dicraeosaurid, a titanosaurid and another undetermined sauropod (possibly a titanosaurid), two charcharodontosaurids, a dromaeosaurid, a probable hypsilophodontid and two iguanodontian ornithopods. It is one of the most diverse dinosaur faunas known from the Cretaceous of Africa. The environment was probably a semiarid savanna with some rivers, lined by dense vegetation, with abundant sauropods, less abundant theropods and rare ornithopods. Gigantic carcharodontosaurids were at the top of the food chain. At the present state of knowledge, the dinosaur fauna from the middle to late Cretaceous of Africa can be characterized by the presence of carcharodontosaurids, spinosaurids, titanosaurids, diplodocoids, and possibly iguanodontian ornithopods.