Anchisauria Explained

Anchisauria is an extinct clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs that lived from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. The name Anchisauria was first used Haekel and defined by Galton and Upchurch in the second edition of The Dinosauria.^{[1] [2]} It is a node-based taxon containing the most recent common ancestor of Anchisaurus polyzelus and Melanorosaurus readi, and all its descendants.^[3] Galton and Upchurch assigned a family of dinosaurs to the Anchisauria: the Melanorosauridae. The more common prosauropods Plateosaurus and Massospondylus were placed in the sister clade Plateosauria.

However, research has since indicated that Anchisaurus is closer to sauropods than traditional prosauropods; thus, Anchisauria would by definition also include Sauropoda.^[4]

The following cladogram simplified after an analysis presented by Blair McPhee and colleagues in 2014.^[5]

Sources

• 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,

Notes and References

1. Book: Haeckel, Ernst . Systematische Phylogenie der Wirbelthiere: (Vertebrata) . 1895 . G. Reimer . de.
2. Book: The dinosauria . 2007 . University of California Press . David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska . 978-0-520-25408-4 . 2nd . Berkeley, Calif. . 154697781.
3. Bronzati . M. . Müller . R. T. . Langer . M. C. . Skull remains of the dinosaur Saturnalia tupiniquim (Late Triassic, Brazil): With comments on the early evolution of sauropodomorph feeding behaviour . PLOS ONE . 2019 . 14 . 9 . e0221387 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0221387. 31490962 . 6730896 . free . 2019PLoSO..1421387B .
4. Yates . Adam M. . 2010 . A revision of the problematic sauropodomorph dinosaurs from Manchester, Connecticut and the status of Anchisaurus Marsh . . 53 . 4 . 739–752 . 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00952.x. 140535438 . free . 2010Palgy..53..739Y .
5. 10.1111/zoj.12127. The complete anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of Antetonitrus ingenipes(Sauropodiformes, Dinosauria): Implications for the origins of Sauropoda. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 171. 151–205. 2014. McPhee . B. W. . Yates . A. M. . Choiniere . J. N. . Abdala . F. . 82631097.