Anchisauria

Taxobox
name = Anchisauria
fossil_range = Triassic-Jurassic


image_width = 200px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Sauropodomorpha
unranked_familia = Anchisauria
unranked_familia_authority = Galton & Upchurch, 2004
subdivision_ranks = Families
subdivision =
* Anchisauridae
* ?Melanorosauridae

The Anchisauria were a clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The name Anchisauria was first used by Galton and Upchurch in the second edition of "The Dinosauria". Galton and Upchurch assigned two families of dinosaurs to the Anchisauria: the Anchisauridae and the Melanorosauridae, of which "Anchisaurus" and "Melanorosaurus" are the best-known members. The more common prosauropods "Plateosaurus" and "Massospondylus" were placed in the sister clade Plateosauria.

However, recent evidence suggests that "Anchisaurus" is an early sauropod, not a prosauropod. Yates (2007) classified "Yunnanosaurus" and "Anchisaurus" within the Anchisauria.

References

* Galton, P.M & Upchurch, P. (2004). "Prosauropoda". In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmólska (eds.), "The Dinosauria" (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 232-258.
* Yates, Adam M. (2007), "The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur "Melanorosaurus" Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria)", in Barrett, Paul M. & Batten, David J., "Special Papers in Palaeontology", vol. 77, pp. 9–55, ISBN 9781405169332