Thecodontosaurus

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Thecodontosaurus
Fossil range: Late Triassic

Life restoration of Thecodontosaurus antiquus

Conservation status

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Family:	Thecodontosauridae Lydekker, 1890
Genus:	Thecodontosaurus Riley & Stuchbury, 1836

Binomial name

Thecodontosaurus antiquus
Morris, 1843

Thecodontosaurus ("socket-tooth lizard") was a herbivorous dinosaur which lived during the late Triassic period Period (Norian and/or Rhaetian age). Its remains are known mostly from Triassic "fissure fillings" in South England and Wales. On average, it was 4 feet (1.20 metres) long, 1 foot tall (0.3 metres), and weighed 25 pounds (11 kilograms).

Although not actually the earliest member of the group (that honour belongs to as yet unnamed sauropodomorphs from Madagascar (Flynn and Wyss 2002)), Thecodontosaurus is the most primitive well-known representative of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs. Originally it was included under the Prosauropoda (Upchurch 1998) but more recently it has been suggested that Thecodontosaurus and its relatives were prior to the Prosauropod-Sauropod split (Yates & Kitching 2003). New reconstructions show that its neck is proportionally shorter than in more advanced early sauropodomorphs.

The Thecodontosaurus was a victim of World War II bombings by the Germans. The remains of this dinosaur and other material related to it were destroyed in 1940. However, more remains have been found at a number of localities, including Bristol. Some of this new material pertains to a juvenile specimen that may belong to a distinct species, Thecodontosaurus caducus Yates, 2003. The Australian dinosaur Agrosaurus macgillivrayi (Seeley, 1891) is probably synonymous with Thecodontosaurus antiquus.

[edit] References

Flynn, John J. and Wyss, Andre R. (2002) Madagascar's Mesozoic Secrets. Scientific American 286: 54-63 February 2002.

Upchurch, P (1998), The phylogenetic relationships of sauropod dinosaurs. Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 124: 43–103.

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 Vol. 1, no.1, pp. 1-42

Yates, A.M. & Kitching, J. W. (2003) The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion. Proc. R. Soc. Lond.: B Biol Sci. 2003 Aug 22; 270(1525): 1753–8.