Тазоудазавр: Исчезнувший род динозавров из Марокко

Extinct genus of dinosaurs
speciesbox
| fossil range = Toarcian, Uncertain allocation of the layers

Back in the early 2000s, several excavations took place in the High Atlas near Toundoute, in the Province of Ouarzazate, where a series 300 m thick continental redbeds are exposed. In these redbeds, two main fossiliferous localities were initially denominated "To1 site" and excavated in the Duar of Tazouda, a hill near Toundoute, separated 30 m from each other. The remains, consisting of the holotype, a partial adult skeleton and cranial material (specimen To 2000–1) including complete left mandible with teeth, quadrate, jugal, postorbital, parietal, frontal and exoccipital, as well an associated partial juvenile skeleton (specimen To 2000–2) found in continental detrital sediments of the Toarcian aged Azilal Formation, were described by Ronan Allain et al. in early 2004. The generic name derives from one of the localities, Tazouda, while the specific descriptor is a Latinization of the Berber term for "slender" due to the animal's small size for a sauropod.) "O R", with indeterminate amniote material and finally "To2", with a subadult Tazoudasaurus and a large bodied theropod. By 2010, 10 specimens where know. Additional material of the genus may have been discovered before the excavations on Toundoute, as material recovered in the 40 to 80s at the east of the Azilal Village in the province of the same name, include gravisaur material very similar to Tazoudasaurus, composed of a pelvis and other indeterminate remains.

The Tazouda Dinosaur Museum is dedicated to the beds where Tazoudasaurus was discovered. Some researchers, like Najat Akesbi, proposed the creation of a museum to house the local dinosaur fossils, as part of the "Dino Atlas" project. It is configured in complementarity with the Azilal museum and the M'goun Geopark to constitute what is called "the route of the dinosaurs".

Tazoudasaurus is one of the most complete basal sauropods known. Several specimens, representing ten different individuals, have been found. Both juveniles and adults are represented. As of 2010, the sites were not fully excavated and many of the bones had not been prepared for study. The skull is represented by a few disarticulated bones and a nearly complete lower jaw from the holotype individual. Several latter works have agreed on the non Eusauropodan classification of Tazoudasaurus, finding it usually closer with Vulcanodon. A recent cladogram after Pol and colleagues, in 2021, summarizes it:

Tazoudasaurus had likely a gregarious behaviour, based on the agrupation of juvenile, adult and subadult speciments coexisting together in a herd, representing a large plant eating taxon, originally claimed to be around long, more recent estimations suggest a maximum length close to and a weight around
The "Toundoute Continental Series" is unlike other members of the Azilal Formation, due to the presence of volcanic material of coeval age, probably coming from a nearby source of Strombolian type eruptions. The Azilal Formation recovers a Terrestrial progradation that happened in the Central High Atlas Basin towards the Toarcian, where the older Pliensbachian Carbonate Platform retreated to the east. The lithology of this unit at Tundoute is divided in 5 units from D to H, (A C represent the units of the underlying marine dolomite, C representing a transition to a terrestrial environment). These layers have been referred to a Pliensbachian Toarcian age, based on outdated data, as the underliying Carbonates where quoted to be a continuation with less thickess of the ones found in Todhra, that reach the Late Pliensbachian, being eveidence of a latter progradation than the one seen in the N, for example at Béni Mellal. The section including the bones of Tazoudasaurus and Berberosaurus was likely deposited on a channel/floodplain type fluvial system, with sand filled channels abundant in plant roots (mostly located in fine limestone, probably from the channel margins), developed in the near E W direction of transit. These layers also recover the presence of thick (up to 6 m) gypsium facies, which suggest the presence of a local Chott, indicating a succession of humid and dry seasons.) remains at the E of Azilal village, Medium Sized Sauropod remains at Mizaguène Hill (SW Azilal) and indeterminate Dinosaur remains from other locations around Azilal and Demnate.