Melanorosauridae

Melanorosaurids Temporal range: Triassic-Jurassic, 228–189.6  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Life depiction of Melanorosaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	† Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	† Anchisauria
Family:	† Melanorosauridae von Huene, 1929
Genera
† Camelotia ? † Melanorosaurus

The Melanorosauridae were a family of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The name Melanorosauridae was first coined by Friedrich von Huene in 1929. Huene assigned several families of dinosaurs to the infraorder "Prosauropoda": the Anchisauridae, the Plateosauridae, the Thecodontosauridae, and the Melanorosauridae. Since then, these families have undergone numerous revisions. Galton and Upchurch (2004) considered Camelotia , Lessemsaurus , and Melanorosaurus members of the family Melanorosauridae. A more recent study by Yates (2007) indicates that the melanorosaurids were instead early sauropods.

Subsequent studies have either considered Melanorosaurus and Camelotia as closely related, or have recovered them as unrelated. ^[1]

References

1. Barrett, Paul M.; Choiniere, Jonah N. (2024-01-02). "Melanorosaurus readi Haughton, 1924 (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic of South Africa: osteology and designation of a lectotype". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 44 (1). doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2337802. ISSN   0272-4634.

• Galton, P.M & Upchurch, P. (2004). "Prosauropoda". In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 232–258.
• Yates, Adam M. (2007), "The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria)", in Barrett, Paul M. & Batten, David J., Special Papers in Palaeontology, vol. 77, pp. 9–55, ISBN   978-1-4051-6933-2

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