Family
Valid Extinct

Melanorosauridae

melanorosaurid
Huene 1929

The Melanorosauridae were a family of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The name Melanorosauridae was first coined by Friedrich von Huene in 1929. Huene assigned several families of dinosaurs to the infraorder "Prosauropoda": the Anchisauridae, the Plateosauridae, the Thecodontosauridae, and the Melanorosauridae. Since then, these families have undergone numerous revisions. Galton and Upchurch (2004) considered Camelotia, Lessemsaurus, and Melanorosaurus members of the family Melanorosauridae. A more recent study by Yates (2007) indicates that the melanorosaurids were instead early sauropods.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Dinosaures
Terrestrial
Melanorosauridae
click to enlarge
Melanorosaurus readi restoration, • Based proportionally on a skeletal reconstruction by Scott Hartman. [1] • The coastal setting is not meant to imply that this animal lived near the coast. It was chosen for artistic reasons. • The colours and/or patterns, as with nearly all reconstructions of prehistoric creatures, are speculative. NOTE: I often update my images. If you want to have any of my images on a website, please (if possible) don’t host/save it to the website server. I’d prefer it if the image's Wikimedia URL is used. This means that if I update an image, it will be updated on the site as well. Thanks. © Steveoc 86 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Saurischia Unranked clade
›
Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
›
Bagualosauria Unranked clade
›
Plateosauria Unranked clade
›
Anchisauria Unranked clade
›
Melanorosauridae Family
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇱🇸 Lesotho
2
Geological formations
Elliot
2
Temporal distribution
Sinemurian (199.5–192.9 Ma)
2
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
F. v. Huene. 1929. Kurze Übersicht über die Saurischia und ihre natürlichen Zusammenhänge [A brief survey of the Saurischia and their natural context]. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 11:269-273 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
P. Ellenberger. 1970. Les niveaux paléontologiques de première apparition des mammifères primoridaux en Afrique du Sud et leur ichnologie. Establissement de zones stratigraphiques detaillees dans le Stormberg du Lesotho (Afrique du Sud) (Trias Supérieur à Jurassique) [The paleontological levels of the first appearance of primordial mammals in southern Africa and their ichnology. Establishment of detailed stratigraphic zones in the Stormberg of Lesotho (southern Africa) (Upper Triassic to Jurassic). In: S. H. Haughton (ed.), Second Symposium on Gondwana Stratigraphy and Paleontology, International Union of Geological Sciences. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria