| Plateosauravus Temporal range: Norian
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|---|---|
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| Humerus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Plateosauria |
| Genus: | †Plateosauravus von Huene 1932 |
| Species: | †P. cullingworthi
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| Binomial name | |
| †Plateosauravus cullingworthi (Sidney Haughton 1924 [originally Plateosaurus])
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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.456
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
References
References
- Haughton, S.H. (1924) "The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series". Annals of the South African Museum 12:323-497.
- von Huene, F. (1932). "Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte". Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, series 1:4, 361 pp.
- van Heerden, J. (1979). The morphology and taxonomy of Euskelosaurus (Reptilia: Saurischia; Late Triassic) from South Africa. Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum 4(2):23-84.
- Yates, A.M. (2003). A new species of the primitive dinosaur Thecodontosaurus (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for the systematics of early dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1(1):1-42
- Yates, A.M., and Kitching, J.W. (2003). The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270(1525):1753-1758.
- Yates, A.M. (2006). Solving a dinosaurian puzzle: the identity of Aliwalia rex Galton. Historical Biology, iFirst article, 1–30.
- Durand, J.F. 2001. The oldest juvenile dinosaurs from Africa. African Earth Sciences 33:597–603.