Massospondylids Temporal range:Late Triassic –Early Jurassic,227–176 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
An example of Massospondylidae,Adeopapposaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Massopoda
Family:	†Massospondylidae Huene, 1914
Type species
†Massospondylus carinatus Owen,1854
Genera[1][2]
†Adeopapposaurus? †Coloradisaurus †Glacialisaurus †Hortalotarsus †Ignavusaurus? †Leyesaurus? †Lufengosaurus †Massospondylus †Ngwevu †Pradhania †Sarahsaurus? †Xingxiulong?

Massospondylidae is afamily of earlymassopoddinosaurs^[3][4] that existed inAsia,Africa,North America,South America andAntarctica^[5] during theLate Triassic to theEarly Jurassic periods. Several dinosaurs have been classified as massospondylids over the years. The largestcladistic analysis of early sauropodomorphs, which was presented by Apaldetti and colleagues in November 2011, foundAdeopapposaurus,Coloradisaurus,Glacialisaurus,Massospondylus,Leyesaurus andLufengosaurus to be massospondylids.^[6] This result supports many previous analyses that tested fewer taxa.^[4][7][8][9] However, this analysis found the two recently describedNorth American massopods,Sarahsaurus andSeitaad, and theSouth AfricanIgnavusaurus to nest outside Massospondylidae, as opposed to some provisional proposals.^[10][11] 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.^[12]Mussaurus andXixiposaurus may also be included within Massospondylidae.^[13]

In 2019, a specimen previously assigned toMassospondylus from South Africa was re-examined and found to belong to a separate genus that was namedNgwevu.^[14]

Massospondylidae, which was first named byHuene in 1914, is astem-based taxon. It was defined by Sereno as all animals more closely related toMassospondylus carinatus than toPlateosaurus engelhardti andSaltasaurus loricatus.^[15]

The following simplifiedcladogram is based on an analysis presented by Chapelle and colleagues in 2019.^[1]

Below is a simplified cladogram after Müller, 2019.^[2]

The following cladogram shows the position of Massospondylidae withinMassopoda, according to Oliver W. M. Rauhut and colleagues, 2020:^[16]

• Massospondylidae
• Dinosaur families

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