Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837

Nesbitt, Sterling J., 2011, The Early Evolution Of Archosaurs: Relationships And The Origin Of Major Clades, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (352), pp. 1-292 : 54-55

Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837

(fig. 12I)

AGE: Middle Norian, Late Triassic ( Yates, 2003).

OCCURRENCE: Plateosaurus Quarry , upper Löwenstein Formation, Trossingen, Baden- Wurttemberg, Germany.

REFERENCE MATERIAL: SMNS 13200, a nearly complete skull and skeleton. (The original syntypes are not diagnostic [ Yates, 2003]).

REFERRED MATERIAL: AMNH FR 6810, disarticulated skull and complete skeleton; AMNH FR various specimens from the Plateosaurus Quarry. See Yates (2003) . Numerous skeletons from SMNS and GPIT.

REMARKS: Plateosaurus is one of the bestknown Triassic dinosaurs, and it is represented by hundreds of specimens ranging from nearly complete skeletons to isolated elements. It is unclear which species name, Plateosaurus engelhardti or Plateosaurus longiceps , should be applied to the Plateosaurus Quarry specimens given the incomplete and nondiagnostic syntypes of Plateosaurus engelhardti ( Meyer, 1837) . Here, I follow Yates (2003) and consider all specimens from the Plateosaurus Quarry as Plateosaurus engelhardti . I score only specimens from the Plateosaurus Quarry and have referred to them as Plateosaurus engelhardti .

Plateosaurus engelhardti has the following character states: a dorsal end of the lacrimal with a broad, weakly rugose, lateral sheet covering the posterodorsal corner of the antorbital fenestra; short jugal with a dorsoventrally deep suborbital bar; palatine with a centrally located, ventral, peglike process; interbasipterygoid septum deep, filling the whole of the space between the basipterygoid processes, and with paired central processes’ stout metacarpal V with a convex proximal articular surface; broad proximal caudal neural spines (proximodistal width greater than 40% of their height); and laterally compressed distal ischial expansions (from Yates, 2003).

KEY REFERENCES: Meyer, 1837; Huene, 1926; Galton, 2000; Yates, 2003.