Saturnaliidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of basal

sauropodomorph 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 lon ...

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

found in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and possibly

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is not to be confused with Saturnalidae, a family of radiolarian protists.

Classification

In 2010,

Martin Ezcurra Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

defined the subfamily Saturnaliinae for the clade containing ''

Saturnalia Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple ...

'' and ''

Chromogisaurus ''Chromogisaurus'' is an extinct genus of saturnaliid sauropodomorph which existed in Argentina during the Late Triassic (Carnian) period. It is from the Cancha de Bochas, Valle Pintado member of the Ischigualasto Formation. It was a herbivore ...

'', which were found to be close relatives in several studies. While they are sometimes found to be a subgroup within the

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 ...

, 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 ''Agnosphitys'' (; "unknown begetter"; sometimes mistakenly called ''Agnostiphys'' or ''Agnosphytis'') is a genus of dinosauriform that lived during the Late Triassic. It contains only one species, the type species ''A. cromhallensis''. Its rema ...

'' was recovered as a possible saturnaliine until it was recovered as a member of

Silesauridae Silesauridae is an extinct family of Triassic dinosauriforms. It is most commonly considered to be a clade of non-dinosaur dinosauriforms, and the sister group of dinosaurs. Some studies have instead suggested that most or all silesaurids compr ...

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 ''Pampadromaeus'' is an extinct genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs known from the Late Triassic (Carnian) Santa Maria Formation of the Paraná Basin in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil.Cabreira et al., 2011 Discovery ''Pampadromaeus'' ...

'' and ''

Panphagia ''Panphagia'' is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur described in 2009. It lived around 231 million years ago, during the Carnian age of the Late Triassic period in what is now northwestern Argentina. Fossils of the genus were found in the La ...

'' as relatives of ''Saturnalia'' and ''Chromogisaurus'', elevating Saturnaliinae to family rank as Saturnaliidae. In that particular paper, they recovered ''Guaibasaurus'' as a basal theropod.Langer MC, McPhee BW, Marsola JCdA, Roberto-da-Silva L, Cabreira SF (2019) Anatomy of the dinosaur '' Pampadromaeus barberenai'' (Saurischia—Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation of southern Brazil. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0212543. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212543 Additionally, ''

Eoraptor ''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 northwest ...

'', ''

Buriolestes ''Buriolestes'' is a genus of early sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation of the Paraná Basin in southern Brazil. It contains a single species, ''B. schultzi'', named in 2016. The type specimen was found alongsid ...

'', ''

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, ''Bagualosaur ...

'' and especially ''

Nhandumirim ''Nhandumirim'' (meaning "small rhea" in the Tupi language) is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Carnian age of Late Triassic Brazil. It is currently considered a saturnaliid sauropodomorph. The type and only species, ''Nhandum ...

'' are also possible members of this clade following their position in many recent phylogenetic analyses and the new definition given by Langer et al. (2019), as "the maximal sauropodomorph clade to encompass ''Saturnalia'' but not ''

Plateosaurus ''Plateosaurus'' (probably meaning "broad lizard", often mistranslated as "flat lizard") is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Eur ...

''." In several of these analyses, ''Guaibasaurus'' is recovered as distantly related to ''Saturnalia'', sometimes as a more basal sauropodomorph or saurischian, and in some cases specifically related to more derived taxa such as ''

Macrocollum ''Macrocollum'' is a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period (early Norian) in what is now Brazil. It is one of the oldest dinosaurs known. Discovery ''Macrocollum'' was discovered in 2012 in Rio G ...

'' and ''

Unaysaurus ''Unaysaurus'' is a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph herbivore dinosaur. Discovered in southern Brazil, in the geopark of Paleorrota, in 1998, and announced in a press conference on Thursday, December 3, 2004, it is one of the oldest dinosaurs ...

.'' This way a Guaibasauridae including ''Saturnalia'' and kin is no longer being supported.

References

Sauropodomorphs Carnian first appearances Late Triassic extinctions Prehistoric dinosaur families {{Sauropodomorph-stub