Plateosauridae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of plateosaurian

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 lo ...

s from the Late Triassic of

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and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. Although several dinosaurs have been classified as plateosaurids over the years, the family Plateosauridae is now restricted to ''Plateosaurus'', '' Yimenosaurus'', '' Euskelosaurus'', and '' Issi''''.'' In another study, Yates (2003) sunk ''Sellosaurus'' into ''Plateosaurus'' (as ''P. gracilis''). '' Gresslyosaurus'' is alternatively considered its own genus or a synonym of ''Plateosaurus''.

Classification

Plateosauridae, which was first named by

Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of paleontology. A prolific fossil collector, Marsh was one of the preeminent paleontologists of the nineteenth century. Among his legacies are the discovery or ...

in 1895, is a

stem-based taxon Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxon, taxa in biology that uses phylogenetics, phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with Biological classification, the traditional method, by which ...

and it was defined by Sereno, 1998 as all animals more closely related to '' Plateosaurus engelhardti'' than to '' Massospondylus carinatus''. Galton and Upchurch, 2004 proposed the following definition: all animals more closely related to ''Plateosaurus engelhardti'' than to ''Massospondylus carinatus'' and '' Yunnanosaurus huangi''. Yates, 2007 defined it as all animals more closely related to ''Plateosaurus engelhardti'' than to '' Diplodocus longus''. Recent

cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

analyses suggest that the clade Prosauropoda, which was named by Huene in 1920 and was defined by Sereno, 1998 as all animals more closely related to '' Plateosaurus engelhardti'' than to '' Saltasaurus loricatus'', is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of Plateosauridae as both contain the same taxa. Plateosauridae was recovered as a monophyletic group in the large phylogenetic analysis of early dinosaurs that was presented by Baron, Norman & Barrett (2017) in the journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. In this analysis, the group was found to be sister to

Massopoda Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the Sauropoda, sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large siz ...

within the clade

Plateosauria 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 lo ...

.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. The 2021 study by Beccari ''et al''. describing '' Issi saaneq'' recovered it as the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

of ''

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 Eu ...

''. Their

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organ ...

also recovered ''

Macrocollum ''Macrocollum'' is a genus of unaysauridae, unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period (geology), period (early Norian) in what is now Brazil. It is one of the oldest dinosaurs known. Discovery and naming ''Mac ...

'' and ''

Unaysaurus ''Unaysaurus'' is a genus of unaysauridae, unaysaurid sauropodomorpha, 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 ...

'' within the Plateosauridae. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the

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

below:

References

External links

Plateosauridae at Palaeos.com
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1195385 Sauropodomorpha Dinosaur families