Efraasia
| Efraasia | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
| Upper Triassic ( Norium ) | ||||||||
| 228 to 208.5 million years | ||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Efraasia | ||||||||
| von Huene , 1908 |
Efraasia was an early dinosaur . Fossils of this dinosaur come from the Upper Triassic ( Norium ) of Germany . It was named after the paleontologist Eberhard Fraas .
features
Efraasia was one of the most primitive representatives of the Sauropodomorpha and reached a length of around six meters. (Frequently found smaller lengths are based on fossil finds from young animals). It resembled its contemporary Thecodontosaurus , but was larger. Like many early prosauropods, it may have moved partly on two legs and partly on all fours.
Taxonomy history
Since their discovery, the Efraasia finds have often been misinterpreted. Initially, parts of the body skeleton were associated with jawbones of a different type. This falsely pieced together genus was called Teratosaurus and considered an early representative of the theropods . The error was later recognized and the parts of the body skeleton were assigned to the prosauropods - Teratosaurus (the scientific name of the jawbone retained its validity) is now considered a representative of the Rauisuchia , a Triassic Archosauria group. After it had been recognized that Efraasia is a prosauropod, Eberhard Fraas classified Efraasia as a synonym of Thecodontosaurus . Later the finds were thought to be juvenile representatives of Sellosaurus , and it has only been clear for a few years that Efraasia is an early genus of prosauropods in its own right.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 166, online .