Melanorosauridae

The Melanorosauridae were a family of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The name Melanorosauridae was 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.

Melanorosauridae

Steveoc 86 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
melanorosauridPBDB
Sits inside
AnchisauriaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At most 8.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 192.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic202–201 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201.9 Mya192.4 Mya

2 occurrences of Melanorosauridae on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

  • Elliot Formation · Stormberg GroupMafeteng, Mohale's Hoek · LS · 201.4–192.9 Mya2
Elliot — 29.69°S, 27.38°EElliot — 30.18°S, 27.43°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Melanorosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Melanorosauridae and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Melanorosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from any of those sites.

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Melanorosauridae, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Melanorosauridae

Credit
Steveoc 86
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Melanorosauridae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnchisauria through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Huene 1929