Massopoda

Eukaryota

Massopoda Temporal range: Late Triassic–Late Cretaceous PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Maxillary teeth of basal massopodans: Leyesaurus (a), Adeopapposaurus (b), Massospondylus (c), and Riojasaurus (d)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Node:	†Plateosauria
Branch:	†Massopoda Yates, 2007
Clades
†Anchisauria †Gryponychidae †Ignavusaurus †Jingshanosaurus †Massospondylidae †Mussaurus †Riojasauridae †Sarahsaurus †Seitaad †Xixiposaurus †Yunnanosaurus

The Massopoda is a clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous periods. Massopoda, which was first named by paleontologist Adam M. Yates of the University of the Witwatersrand in 2007, is a stem-based taxon and it was defined by him as all animals more closely related to Saltasaurus loricatus than to Plateosaurus engelhardti.^[1]

Yates assigned the Massopoda to Plateosauria. Within the clade, he assigned the families Massospondylidae (which includes the relatively well-known dinosaur Massospondylus) and Riojasauridae (which includes Riojasaurus) as well as the core group Sauropoda.^[2]

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

References

1. ^ Yates, Adam M. (2007). "Solving a dinosaurian puzzle: the identity of Aliwalia rex Galton". Historical Biology 19 (1): 93–123. 
2. ^ Yates, Adam M. (2007). "The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria)". In Barrett & Batten (eds.), Evolution and Palaeobiology 77: 9–55. ISBN 9781405169332. 
3. ^ 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. 

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