Sauropodomorphs
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Sauropodomorphs
Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had long necks and tails, were quadrupedal, and became the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The '' prosauropods,'' which preceded the sauropods, were smaller and were often able to walk on two legs. The sauropodomorphs were the dominant terrestrial herbivores throughout much of the Mesozoic Era, from their origins in the Late Triassic (approximately 230 Ma) until their decline and extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Description Sauropodomorphs were adapted to browsing higher than any other contemporary herbivore, giving them access to high tree foliage. This feeding strategy is supported by many of their defining characteristics, such as: a light, tiny skull on the end of a long neck (with ten or more elongated cervical vertebrae) ...
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Eoraptor Lunensis
''Eoraptor'' () is a genus of small, lightly built, basal sauropodomorph. One of the earliest-known dinosaurs, it lived approximately 231 to 228 million years ago, during the Late Triassic in Western Gondwana, in the region that is now northwestern Argentina. The type and only species, ''Eoraptor lunensis'', was first described in 1993, and is known from an almost complete and well-preserved skeleton and several fragmentary ones. ''Eoraptor'' had multiple tooth shapes, which suggests that it was omnivorous. History of discovery The bones of this primitive dinosaur were first discovered in 1991, by University of San Juan paleontologist Ricardo Martínez, during field work conducted by the University of Chicago and the University of San Juan. The holotype specimen ''PVSJ 512'' was discovered in muddy siltstone belonging to the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. The fossils in this formation were deposited in the Carnian stage of the Triassic ...
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Saturnaliidae
Saturnaliidae is a family of basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs found in Brazil, Argentina and possibly Zimbabwe. It is not to be confused with Saturnalidae, a family of radiolarian protists. Classification In 2010, Martin Ezcurra defined the subfamily Saturnaliinae for the clade containing ''Saturnalia'' and ''Chromogisaurus'', which were found to be close relatives in several studies. While they are sometimes found to be a subgroup within the Guaibasauridae, all recent studies have found the saturnaliines to form an independent lineage at the very base of the sauropodomorph family tree. At one point, '' Agnosphitys'' was recovered as a possible saturnaliine until it was recovered as a member of Silesauridae in 2017.Baron, M.G., Norman, D.B., and Barrett, P.M. (2017). A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution. ''Nature'', 543: 501–506. Langer and colleagues (2019) recovered '' Pampadromaeus'' and '' Panphagia'' as relatives of ''Saturnalia'' and '' ...
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Sauropoda
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land. Well-known genera include ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Brontosaurus''. The oldest known unequivocal sauropod dinosaurs are known from the Early Jurassic. '' Isanosaurus'' and ''Antetonitrus'' were originally described as Triassic sauropods, but their age, and in the case of ''Antetonitrus'' also its sauropod status, were subsequently questioned. Sauropod-like sauropodomorph tracks from the Fleming Fjord Formation (Greenland) might, however, indicate the occurrence of the group in the Late Triassic. By the Late Jurassic (150 million ye ...
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Plateosauria
Plateosauria is a clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. The name Plateosauria was first coined by Gustav Tornier in 1913. The name afterwards fell out of use until the 1980s. Classification Plateosauria is a node-based taxon. In 1998, Paul Sereno defined Plateosauria as the last common ancestor of ''Plateosaurus engelhardti'' and ''Massospondylus carinatus'', and its descendants. Peter Galton and Paul Upchurch in 2004 used a different definition: the last common ancestor of ''Plateosaurus engelhardti'' and '' Jingshanosaurus xinwaensis'', and its descendants. In their cladistic analysis the Plateosauria belonged to the Prosauropoda, and included the Plateosauridae subgroup. In Galton's and Upchurch's study also '' Coloradisaurus'', ''Euskelosaurus'', '' Jingshanosaurus'', ''Massospondylus'', ''Mussaurus'', ''Sellosaurus'', and ''Yunnanosaurus'' proved to be plateosaurians. However, recent cladistic analyses suggest that ...
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Unaysauridae
Unaysauridae is a clade of basal sauropodomorphs from the Late Triassic of India and Brazil. Diagnosis and systematics Unaysauridae was defined by Müller ''et al.'' (2018) as the most inclusive clade including ''Unaysaurus tolentinoi'', but not ''Plateosaurus engelhardti'' nor ''Saltasaurus loricatus''. Members of Unaysauridae are diagnosed by a substantially expanded cranial part of the medial condyle of the astragalus, as well as a promaxillary fenestra. Unaysauridae is sister to Plateosauria, more derived than ''Nambalia'', ''Thecodontosaurus'' ISI R277, '' Pantydraco'', and ''Efraasia''.Rodrigo Temp Müller; Max Cardoso Langer; Sérgio Dias-da-Silva (2018). "An exceptionally preserved association of complete dinosaur skeletons reveals the oldest long-necked sauropodomorphs". Biology Letters. 14 (11): 20180633. . ''Unaysaurus'' and ''Jaklapallisaurus'' had previously been assigned to Plateosauridae Plateosauridae is a family of plateosaurian sauropodomorphs from the La ...
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Thecodontosauridae
Thecodontosauridae is a family of basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs that are part of the Bagualosauria, known from fossil remains found exclusively in the Magnesian Conglomerate of Bristol, England,Magnesian Conglomerate
in the
which dates back to the Rhaetian stage of the (although it could be as old as the
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Pantydraco
''Pantydraco'' (where "panty-" is short for Pant-y-ffynnon, signifying ''hollow of the spring/well'' in Welsh, referring to the quarry at Bonvilston in South Wales where it was found) was a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic of the United Kingdom (Wales). It is based on a partial juvenile skeleton once thought to belong to ''Thecodontosaurus''. Only one valid species of ''Pantydraco'' is recognised: ''P. caducus.'' Description ''Pantydraco'' was of moderate build. The creature had a long tail that tapered towards the end and was broad at the hip joint. It had a pointed head with a strong jaw. The forelimbs of the dinosaur were developed for grasping while the hindlimbs were adapted for supporting the creature's body weight. The center of mass lies near the pelvic bone, meaning the creature was bipedal. The forelimbs were shorter than the hindlimbs. The hands had three movable digits while the fourth digit was embedded. It had well-developed claws. Th ...
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Nambalia
''Nambalia'' is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Late Triassic period (late Norian to earliest Rhaetian) in what is now Telangana, central India. It is known from the holotype ISI R273, parts 1–3, partially articulated postcranial material and from the paratypes ISI R273, parts 4-29, including partial postcrania of at least two individuals of different sizes found closely associated and one of them is nearly the same size as the holotype. Discovery and naming ISI R273 was discovered and collected from the Upper Maleri Formation within the Pranhita–Godavari Basin, north of Nambal village. It was first named by Fernando E. Novas, Martin D. Ezcurra, Sankar Chatterjee and T. S. Kutty in 2011 and the type species is ''Nambalia roychowdhurii''. The generic name is derived from the Indian village of ''Nambal'' which is close to the type locality. The specific name honors Dr. Roy Chowdhuri, for his research on the Triassic vertebrat ...
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Efraasia
''Efraasia'' (pronounced "E-FRAHS-ee-A") is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It was a herbivore which lived during the middle Norian stage of the Late Triassic, around 210 million years ago, in what is now Germany. It was named in 1973 after Eberhard Fraas, who during the early twentieth century collected what were the original type specimens. The specimens were at first assigned to three already existing genera and so became divided among three separate species: ''Teratosaurus minor'', ''Sellosaurus fraasi'' and ''Paleosaurus diagnosticus''. In 2003 these were combined into a single valid species: ''Efraasia minor''. ''Efraasia'' was a lightly built, medium-sized sauropodomorph, about long. Discovery and naming ''Efraasia'' has had a complicated taxonomic history involving several genera and species. Material now known under ''Efraasia'' first came to light after Albert Burrer, ''Hofsteinmetzmeister'' ("Court master stonemason") at Maulbronn, in 1902 began to ...
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Bagualosaurus
''Bagualosaurus'' is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Candelária Sequence (Uppermost Santa Maria Formation) of Brazil, dating to around 230 million years ago in the Carnian of the Late Triassic. It includes one species, ''Bagualosaurus agudoensis''. Discovery In 2007, in a ravine at the outcrop of Janner, near Agudo in Rio Grande do Sul, a sauropodomorph skeleton was excavated. It was removed in a single block of stone. For five years it remained unprepared in the collection of the ''Laboratório de Paleovertebrados da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul'', curated by Cesar Leandro Schultz. In 2012, Flávio Augusto Pretto began to study the specimen. In 2018, Pretto, Max Cardoso Langer and Schultz named and described the type species ''Bagualosaurus agudoensis''. The generic name is derived from ''bagual'', "strongly built fellow" in the dialect of Rio Grande do Sul, in reference to the strong hindlimbs. The specific name refers to the provenance from Agudo. ...
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Arcusaurus
''Arcusaurus'' is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic ( Hettangian to Sinemurian stages) of South Africa. ''Arcusaurus'' was first named by Adam Yates, Matthew Bonnan and Johann Neveling in 2011 and the type species is ''Arcusaurus pereirabdalorum''. The generic name is derived from Latin ''arcus'', "rainbow", a reference to the Rainbow Nation. The specific epithet honours Lucille Pereira and Fernando Abdala who discovered the fossils. A phylogenetic study of ''Arcusaurus'' found it to be a basal sauropodomorph, placing it as the sister taxon of ''Efraasia'' and all of the more derived sauropodomorphs. Since ''Efraasia'' is known from the Norian stage of the Late Triassic, the close relationship with ''Arcusaurus'' implies that there was a 35-million-year ghost lineage of sauropodomorphs stretching from Late Triassic forms to ''Arcusaurus''. However, ''Arcusaurus'' possesses many features unique to more advanced groups included in the cl ...
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Guaibasauridae
Guaibasauridae is a family of basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs, known from fossil remains of late Triassic period formations in Brazil and Argentina. Classification The exact makeup and classification of the Guaibasauridae remain uncertain. The family was originally named by Jose Bonaparte and colleagues in 1999 to contain a single genus and species, ''Guaibasaurus candelariensis''. When the second specimen of ''Guaibasaurus'' was described from better remains in 2007, it became easier to compare it to other enigmatic early saurischians, which are often difficult to classify because they combine characteristics of the two major saurischian groups, Theropoda and Sauropodomorpha. Bonaparte and colleagues, in light of the information gained from this second specimen, found that the genus ''Saturnalia'' (which is anatomically very similar to ''Guaibasaurus'') could also be assigned to the Guaibasauridae, though they did not conduct a phylogenetic analysis or define Guaibasauridae as ...
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