Melanorosaurus

Melanorosaurus (meaning "Black Mountain Lizard", from the (Greek melano-/μελανο- "black", oros/ορος "mountain" + saurus/σαυρος "lizard") is a genus of 12 meter long sauropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Triassic period. A herbivore from South Africa, it had a great body and sturdy limbs, suggesting it moved about on all fours. Limb bones were massive and weighty, like sauropod limb bones. But, like most sauropods vertebrae, its spinal bones had hollows that helped reduce weight.

Discovery and species

The type specimen was described in 1924, having been collected from the Upper Triassic Elliot Formation on the north slope of the Thaba 'Nyama (Black Mountain) in Transkei, South Africa. It wasn't until 2007 when the first complete skull of Melanorosaurus was described.^[1]

Melanorosaurus species:

• M. readi (type) = "Roccosaurus" tetrascalis
• M. thabanensis

Classification

Melanorosaurus used to be classified as a prosauropod, but is now recognized as one of the earliest known sauropods. Once thought to be an ancestral basal assemblage to the sauropods, differences in e.g. the design of their ankle bones point out that these are sister-groups. Basal sauropods such as Melanorosaurus, Anchisaurus and Antetonitrus are intermediate between these groups.

References

• Galton PM, Van Heerden J, Yates AM (2005). "Postcranial Anatomy of Referred Specimens of Melanorosaurus", in Carpenter, Kenneth and Tidswell, Virginia (ed.): Thunder Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, 1–37. ISBN 0-253-34542-1. 

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