Prolacertidae is an extinct family of

archosauromorph Archosauromorpha (Greek for "ruling lizard forms") is a clade of diapsid reptiles containing all reptiles more closely related to archosaurs (such as crocodilians and dinosaurs, including birds) rather than lepidosaurs (such as tuataras, liza ...

reptiles that lived during the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a un ...

epoch. It was named in 1935 by the British palaeontologist

Francis Rex Parrington Francis Rex Parrington (20 February 1905 – 17 April 1981) was a British vertebrate palaeontologist and comparative anatomist at the University of Cambridge. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was director of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoo ...

to include the species ''

Prolacerta broomi ''Prolacerta'' is a genus of archosauromorph from the lower Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. The only known species is ''Prolacerta broomi''. The generic name ''Prolacerta'' is derived from Latin meaning “before lizard” and its speci ...

'' of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. In 1979 a second species, '' Kadimakara australiensis'', was described from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Several other genera, such as ''

Macrocnemus ''Macrocnemus'' is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile known from the Middle Triassic (Late Anisian to Ladinian) of Europe and China. ''Macrocnemus'' is a member of the Tanystropheidae family and includes three species''. Macrocnemus bass ...

'', ''

Pamelaria ''Pamelaria'' is an extinct genus of allokotosaurian archosauromorph reptile known from a single species, ''Pamelaria dolichotrachela'', from the Middle Triassic of India. ''Pamelaria'' has sprawling legs, a long neck, and a pointed skull with no ...

'' and ''

Prolacertoides ''Prolacertoides'' is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile from the Early Triassic of China, the type species being ''Prolacertoides jimusarensis''. ''Prolacertoides'' means 'like ''Prolacerta, in reference to ''Prolacerta'', another ...

'', have also been assigned to this family in the past, but these have been placed elsewhere by later studies, leaving ''Prolacerta'' and ''Kadimakara'' as the only well-supported members. The prolacertids were historically placed within the

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

group

Prolacertiformes Protorosauria is an extinct polyphyletic group of archosauromorph reptiles from the latest Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) to the end of the Late Triassic (Rhaetian stage) of Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by the English anatomis ...

along with other basal, long-necked archosauriforms like ''

Protorosaurus ''Protorosaurus'' ("first lizard") is a genus of lizard-like early reptiles. Members of the genus lived during the late Permian period in what is now Germany and Great Britain. Once believed to have been an ancestor to lizards, ''Protorosaurus'' ...

'' and the tanystropheids. However, more recent research has shown that the prolacertids were only distantly related to other "prolacertiforms", and were instead among the closest relatives of

Archosauriformes Archosauriformes (Greek for 'ruling lizards', and Latin for 'form') is a clade of diapsid reptiles that developed from archosauromorph ancestors some time in the Latest Permian (roughly 252 million years ago). It was defined by Jacques Gauthi ...

. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Ezcurra (2016):

References

Prehistoric archosauromorphs Prehistoric reptile families Early Triassic reptiles Taxa named by Francis Rex Parrington {{Triassic-reptile-stub