Thecodontosaurus
Thecodontosaurus | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Graphic representation of Thecodontosaurus |
||||||||
Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
Upper Triassic ( Rhaetium ) | ||||||||
208.5 to 201.3 million years | ||||||||
Locations | ||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||
|
||||||||
Scientific name | ||||||||
Thecodontosaurus | ||||||||
Riley & Stuchbury , 1836 |
Thecodontosaurus ("root tooth lizard") was an approximately 2.5 meter long dinosaur from the group of the Sauropodomorpha that lived at the end of the Triassic ( Rhaetium ). The genus is known from more than 100 individual skeletal parts of adult specimens that were not found in an anatomical context and a partially preserved skeleton of a young animal about one meter long. All of the fossil remains were found in England and Wales .
Type species is Thecodontosaurus antiquu s . As nouns dubia apply Thecodontosaurus dubius and Thecodontosaurus minor . The Thecodontosaurus caducus originally placed in the genus now belongs to a different genus as Pantydraco caducus .
features
Thecodontosaurus was about 2.5 meters long. The skull was relatively small (5% of the body length). Thecodontosaurus was one of the first prosauropods to have lanceolate teeth with serrated crowns . The trunk was relatively short and, as with all primitive prosauropods, its forelegs were shorter than its hind legs. Therefore it is assumed that Thecodontosaurus moved biped (only with the hind legs).
Systematics
Thecodontosaurus was described by Riley and Stuchbury in 1836 , so the reptile was known six years before Richard Owen described the dinosaurs in 1842. It was not until Thomas Henry Huxley recognized that the genus belonged to the dinosaurs in 1870. Today he is considered the most ancient representative of the Prosauropoda.
Cladogram:
Sauropodomorpha |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
literature
- Peter M. Galton , Paul Upchurch : Prosauropoda. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 232-258.
- David E. Fastovsky , David B. Weishampel: The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-81172-4 , pp. 222-226.
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. 163, online .
- ↑ Fastovsky & Weishampel (2005), p. 249
- ↑ a b Michael J. Benton : Paleontology of the vertebrates. Translation of the 3rd English edition. Pfeil, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89937-072-0 , p. 213.
- ↑ Fastovsky & Weishampel (2005), p. 243
- ↑ Fastovsky & Weishampel (2005), page 257
- ↑ Fastovsky & Weishampel (2005), page 250