Massospondylidae

Unikonta

Massospondylidae Temporal range: Late Triassic - Early Jurassic, Norian–Pliensbachian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
An example of Massospondylidae, Adeopapposaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Branch:	†Massopoda
Family:	†Massospondylidae Huene, 1914
Type species
Massospondylus carinatus Owen, 1854
Genera
†Adeopapposaurus †Coloradisaurus †Glacialisaurus †Leyesaurus †Lufengosaurus †Massospondylus †Pradhania

Massospondylidae is a family of massopod sauropodomorphs.^[1][2] Massospondylids are early sauropodomorph dinosaurs which existed in Asia, Africa and South America during the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic periods. Although several dinosaurs have been classified as massospondylids over the years, the largest cladistic analysis of early sauropodomorphs presented by Apaldetti and colleagues in November 2011, found Adeopapposaurus, Coloradisaurus, Glacialisaurus, Massospondylus, Leyesaurus and Lufengosaurus to be valid massospondylids.^[3] This result supports many previous analyses which tested less taxa.^[2][4][5][6] However, this analysis found the two recently described North American massopods, Sarahsaurus and Seitaad and the South African Ignavusaurus, to nest outside Massospondylidae, as opposed to some provisional proposals.^[7][8] Earlier in 2011, Pradhania, a sauropodomorph from India was tested for the first time in a large cladistic analysis and was found to be a relatively basal massospondylid.^[9] Mussaurus and Xixiposaurus may be included within Massospondylidae, too.^[10]

Phylogeny

Massospondylidae, which was first named by Huene in 1914, is a stem-based taxon and it was defined by Sereno as all animals more closely related to Massospondylus carinatus than to Plateosaurus engelhardti and Saltasaurus loricatus.^[11]

The following cladogram simplified after an analysis presented by Apaldetti and colleagues in 2011.^[3]

Massopoda	Riojasauridae  Eucnemesaurus Riojasaurus Ignavusaurus Sarahsaurus  Massospondylidae  Coloradisaurus Glacialisaurus Lufengosaurus Massospondylus Adeopapposaurus Leyesaurus Yunnanosaurus Jingshanosaurus Seitaad  Anchisauria  Anchisaurus Aardonyx Sauropoda

The following cladogram simplified after an analysis presented by Novas et al., 2011:^[9]

Massopoda	Riojasauridae  Eucnemesaurus Riojasaurus  Massospondylidae  Massospondylus Pradhania Coloradisaurus Lufengosaurus Glacialisaurus  Anchisauria  Yunnanosaurus Jingshanosaurus Anchisaurus Melanorosaurus Sauropoda

References

1. ^ Yates, Adam M. (2003). "Species taxonomy of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Löwenstein Formation (Norian, Late Triassic) of Germany". Palaeontology 46 (2): 317-337. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Yates, Adam M. (2007). "The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria)". In Barrett & Batten (eds.), Evolution and Palaeobiology: 9–55. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Cecilia Apaldetti, Ricardo N. Martinez, Oscar A. Alcober and Diego Pol (2011). "A New Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from Quebrada del Barro Formation (Marayes-El Carrizal Basin), Northwestern Argentina". PLoS ONE 6 (11): e26964. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026964. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0026964. 
4. ^ Smith, Nathan D.; and Pol, Diego (2007). "Anatomy of a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Hanson Formation of Antarctica" (pdf). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 52 (4): 657–674. http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app52/app52-57.pdf. 
5. ^ Martínez, Ricardo N. (2009). "Adeopapposaurus mognai, gen. et sp. nov (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha), with comments on adaptations of basal sauropodomorpha". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29 (1): 142–164. doi:10.1671/039.029.0102. 
6. ^ Diego Pol, Alberto Garrido, Ignacio A. Cerda (2011). "A New Sauropodomorph Dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Patagonia and the Origin and Evolution of the Sauropod-type Sacrum". PLoS ONE 6 (1): e14572. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014572. PMC 3027623. PMID 21298087. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014572. 
7. ^ Joseph J. W. Sertich and Mark A. Loewen (2010). "A New Basal Sauropodomorph Dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of Southern Utah". PLoS ONE 5 (3): e9789. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009789. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009789. 
8. ^ Yates, Adam M.; Matthew F. Bonnan and Johann Neveling (2011). "A new basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31 (3): 610–625. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.560626. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a937433139~frm=titlelink. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Fernando E. Novas, Martin D. Ezcurra, Sankar Chatterjee and T. S. Kutty (2011). "New dinosaur species from the Upper Triassic Upper Maleri and Lower Dharmaram formations of central India". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 101 (3-4): 333–349. doi:10.1017/S1755691011020093. 
10. ^ SEKIYA Toru (2010). "A new prosauropod dinosaur from Lower Jurassic in Lufeng of Yunnan". Global Geology 29 (1): 6–15. doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-5589.2010.01.002. http://www.ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?jnlcattype=1&jnlptype=3&jnltype=20&jnliid=2337&issueiid=93871&atliid=1940247. 
11. ^ Sereno, P.C. (1998). "A rationale for phylogenetic definitions, with applications to the higher-level taxonomy of Dinosauria". Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie: Abhandlungen 210: 41–83. 

Dinosaurs portal