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Plateosauravus

Huene, 1932 PLAY-tee-o-SAWR-AY-vus

From the genus name Plateosaurus combined with Latin 'avus' meaning 'grandfather'; translates as 'grandfather of Plateosaurus', indicating it as an ancestral or more primitive relative.

227.3–201.4 million years ago Norian–Rhaetian, Late Triassic
Late Triassic stages

Plateosauravus is a basal plateosaurian of uncertain affinities from the Late Triassic Elliot Formation of South Africa.

Under dispute

Plateosauravus cullingworthi has been recovered in almost every position among early sauropodomorphs; the most recent comprehensive study found it a massospondylid (Krupandan, 2019), whereas other analyses place it in Plateosauridae or as a basal massopodan (Wang and colleagues, 2025).

Diagnosis

  1. Humerus disproportionately long relative to other limb bones compared to European Plateosaurus
  2. Proximal edge of humerus more curved than in other Plateosaurus species or Pachysaurus
  3. Distal end of humerus narrower in proportion to length than in European Plateosaurus or Pachysaurus
  4. Femur with 4th trochanter lower than in P. stormbergensis and medial distal condyle stouter
  5. Tibia shorter than Gryponyx africanus but much more robust, with stouter distal end

Species

Plateosauravus cullingworthi (Haughton, 1924)

Type species

First named as Plateosaurus cullingworthi

Named for T. L. Cullingworth, who collected the holotype specimen.

Syntypes
SAM-PK-3341, SAM-PK-3342, SAM-PK-3343, SAM-PK-3344, SAM-PK-3345, SAM-PK-3345a, SAM-PK-3347, SAM-PK-3348, SAM-PK-3350, SAM-PK-3351, SAM-PK-3356, SAM-PK-3602, SAM-PK-3603 , Iziko South African Museum
Material
Isolated bones of two individuals, a larger and a smaller, from a single bone pocket.
Notes
Haughton (1924) names as co-types "Portions of two animals in South African Museum. Catalogue numbers as in description", and the numbers are those his description gives. McPhee and colleagues (2015) give a wider "type" series, SAM-PK-3341 to 3356, 3602, 3603 and 3607 to 3609, which adds the bones of a more massive animal; Haughton made No. 3608 of that animal the type of Euskelosaurus africanus. The assemblage has been referred in turn to Plateosaurus, Plateosauravus, Euskelosaurus and back to Plateosauravus.
Horizon
lower Elliot Formation, Norian–Rhaetian, Late Triassic , 227.3–201.4 million years ago
Locality
Kromme Spruit, Eastern Cape, South Africa

References

  1. Haughton, S. H. (1924). The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series. Annals of the South African Museum 12: 323-497.

    Original description, as Plateosaurus cullingworthi.

    haughton1924a
  2. Huene, F. V. (1932). Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte [The fossil reptile order Saurischia, their development and history]. Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, serie 1 4(1-2): 1-361.

    Erects the genus Plateosauravus for Plateosaurus cullingworthi.

    huene1932a
  3. McPhee, B. W.; Choiniere, J. N.; Yates, A. M.; Viglietti, P. A. (2015). A second species of Eucnemesaurus Van Hoepen, 1920 (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha): new information on the diversity and evolution of the sauropodomorph fauna of South Africa's lower Elliot Formation (latest Triassic). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35(5): e980504. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.980504

    Gives the "type" series as SAM-PK-3341 to 3356, 3602, 3603 and 3607 to 3609, the last of them the heavier animal Haughton made the type of Euskelosaurus africanus.

    mcphee2015b
  4. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length and mass estimates.

    paul2024a
  5. Wang, Y. M.; Zhang, Q. N.; Wang, Y. C.; Xu, H.; Chen, J.; Feng, Z.; Xu, X.; Wang, T.; You, H. L. (2025). A new Early Jurassic dinosaur represents the earliest-diverging and oldest sauropodomorph of East Asia. Scientific Reports 15(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-12185-2

    Wudingloong phylogenetic analysis recovered Plateosauravus as sister to Ruehleia in early Massopoda

    wang2025a
  6. Krupandan, E. D. (2019). Unravelling the biology of the Southern African Sauropodomorph dinosaurs, Plateosauravus and the 'Maphutseng dinosaur'. 1-228. Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town.

    Recovered Plateosauravus as a massospondylid.

    krupandan2019a