Plateosauravus Temporal range: Norian
~ | |
---|---|
Humerus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Plateosauria |
Genus: | †Plateosauravus von Huene 1932 |
Species: | †P. cullingworthi
|
Binomial name | |
†Plateosauravus cullingworthi (Sidney Haughton 1924 [originally Plateosaurus])
|
Plateosauravus ("grandfather of Plateosaurus") is a basal plateosaurian of uncertain affinities from the Late Triassic Elliot Formation of South Africa.
Sidney Haughton named Plateosaurus cullingworthi in 1924 from a partial skeleton,[1] type specimen SAM 3341, 3345, 3347, 3350–51, 3603, 3607. The specific name honoured collector T.L. Cullingworth. Friedrich von Huene reassessed it in 1932 as belonging to a new genus, which he named Plateosauravus.[2] Jacques van Heerden reassigned it to Euskelosaurus in 1979, and this has been how it was usually considered.[3] However, recent study indicates that Euskelosaurus is based on undiagnostic material and thus a nomen dubium; in his series of sauropodomorph and basal sauropod papers, Adam Yates has recommended no longer using Euskelosaurus and has suggested the use of Plateosauravus instead.[4][5][6][original research?]
More than a dozen additional partial skeletons have been found in the Kruger National Park after a discovery by game warden Adriaan Louw on 27 March 1995. These include juvenile individuals.[7]