| Plateosaurids | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mounted skeletons ofPlateosaurus longiceps from theTrossingen Formation of southern Germany, mounted in the Institute for Geosciences Tübingen | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Plateosauria |
| Family: | †Plateosauridae Marsh, 1895 |
| Type species | |
| †Plateosaurus trossingensis Fraas, 1913 | |
| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Plateosauridae is afamily ofplateosauriansauropodomorphs from the Late Triassic ofEurope,Greenland,Africa andAsia.[1][2] Although several dinosaurs have been classified as plateosaurids over the years, the family Plateosauridae is now restricted toPlateosaurus,Yimenosaurus,Euskelosaurus, andIssi[3]. In another study, Yates (2003) sunkSellosaurus intoPlateosaurus (asP. gracilis).Gresslyosaurus is alternatively considered its own genus or a synonym ofPlateosaurus.[3]
Plateosauridae, which was first named byOthniel Charles Marsh in 1895, is astem-based taxon and it was defined by Sereno, 1998 as all animals more closely related toPlateosaurus engelhardti than toMassospondylus carinatus.[4] Galton and Upchurch, 2004 proposed the following definition: all animals more closely related toPlateosaurus engelhardti than toMassospondylus carinatus andYunnanosaurus huangi. Yates, 2007 defined it as all animals more closely related toPlateosaurus engelhardti than toDiplodocus longus.[2] Recentcladistic analyses suggest that the cladeProsauropoda, which was named by Huene in 1920 and was defined by Sereno, 1998 as all animals more closely related toPlateosaurus engelhardti than toSaltasaurus loricatus,[4] is asynonym of Plateosauridae as both contain the same taxa.[2] Plateosauridae was recovered as a monophyletic group in the large phylogenetic analysis of early dinosaurs that was presented by Baron, Norman & Barrett (2017) in the journalNature. In this analysis, the group was found to be sister toMassopoda within the cladePlateosauria.[5] The 2021 study by Beccariet al.describingIssi saaneq recovered it as thesister taxon ofPlateosaurus. Theirphylogenetic analyses also recoveredMacrocollum andUnaysaurus within the Plateosauridae. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in thecladogram below:[3]
