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Plateosaurus

Fraas, 1913 PLAT-ee-o-SAWR-us

From Greek platys (broad, flat) and sauros (lizard); probably meaning "broad lizard" (often mistranslated as "flat lizard").

227.3–205.7 million years ago Norian, Late Triassic
Late Triassic stages

Plateosaurus is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic epoch of the Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Europe. Plateosaurus is a basal (early) sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod". The type species is Plateosaurus trossingensis; before 2019, that honor was given to Plateosaurus engelhardti, but it was ruled as undiagnostic (i.e. indistinguishable from other dinosaurs) by the ICZN. Currently, there are three valid species; in addition to P. trossingensis, P. longiceps and P. gracilis are also known. However, others have been assigned in the past, and there is no broad consensus on the species taxonomy of plateosaurid dinosaurs. Similarly, there are a plethora of synonyms (invalid duplicate names) at the genus level.

Diagnosis

  1. Pronounced lizard-like posture with plantigrade hind foot and laterally projecting femur
  2. Forefoot developed as grasping hand with large-clawed, somewhat projecting thumb and two further long clawed fingers; fourth and fifth fingers rudimentary
  3. Neck with 10 vertebrae, long but proportionally not excessively elongated, somewhat shorter than in Sellosaurus and Thecodontosaurus
  4. Small, slender skull tapering extraordinarily toward front, form recalling Varanid skull but more slender and pointed
  5. Lower jaw powerful and sharply dentate; two-edged, fairly broad teeth forming closed palisade
  6. Broad tail with length approximating half the total length of entire animal

Species (3)

Plateosaurus trossingensis Fraas, 1913

Type species

Named for Trossingen, the town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where Plateosaurus material was recovered between 1910 and 1912.

Holotype
SMNS 13200 , Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde
Material
Complete skeleton 5.75 m long, including well-preserved skull, neck with 10 vertebrae, forelimbs with grasping hands, trunk, hind limbs, and broad tail. Found in natural articulation in rock.
Horizon
Trossingen Formation, Norian, Late Triassic , 227.3–205.7 million years ago
Locality
Obere Mühle, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837 Nomen dubium

Named for Johann Friedrich Engelhardt, the physician who discovered the original fossil material near Heroldsberg, Germany in 1834.

Lectotype
UEN 552 , Geozentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Material
Lectotype (UEN 552): incomplete three-vertebra sacrum. Paralectotypes (also UEN): three dorsal vertebrae (557a, 557b, 561, 562); two caudal vertebrae (550, 558); a rib fragment (563a-c); a haemapophysis (551); the distal half of a left femur (554, 555); a left femoral head (559); a left tibia (556). Lectotype and paralectotypes designated in Moser (2003). Original syntype series largely destroyed.
Horizon
Trossingen Formation, Norian, Late Triassic , 227.3–205.7 million years ago
Locality
Buchenbühl, Bavaria, Germany

Synonyms

  • Dimodosaurus junior subjective

    D. poligniensis was created for material now considered referable to Plateosaurus engelhardti.

Plateosaurus gracilis Huene, 1905

From Latin 'gracilis' meaning 'slender'.

Holotype
SMNS 5715 , Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde
Material
Incomplete postcranium: dorsal vertebrae, two primordial sacral vertebrae, proximal/middle caudal vertebrae, right ilium, left pubis, conjoined proximal ischia, and a left fibula fragment.
Horizon
Löwenstein Formation, Norian, Late Triassic , 227.3–205.7 million years ago
Locality
Heslach, near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Diagnosis
  1. Neural spines of the proximal caudal vertebrae are proximodistally narrow, their width less than 40 percent of neural spine height.
  2. Postacetabular blade of the ilium bears a larger, more sharply defined brevis shelf than the shorter, narrower one of the type species.
  3. Postacetabular blade of the ilium shallower and more pointed than in the type species.

Synonyms of the genus

Name Type Reason
Gresslyosaurus possible subjective Moser (2003) sinks Gresslyosaurus robustus, G. torgeri and plieningeri into Plateosaurus engelhardti, but argues that the type species G. ingens is generically distinct on a sacral character, so the genus-level synonymy is unsettled.
Pachysauriscus junior subjective Coined as a replacement name for the preoccupied Pachysaurus; the material is now considered referable to Plateosaurus.
Pachysaurops junior objective Coined in 1961 as a replacement name for the preoccupied Pachysaurus; junior to Pachysauriscus (1959, also a Pachysaurus replacement) and ultimately referable to Plateosaurus.
Pachysaurus preoccupied Name preoccupied by another lizard genus; replaced by Pachysauriscus in 1959, and the underlying material is now considered referable to Plateosaurus.
Sellosaurus reassigned Sellosaurus gracilis was reassigned to Plateosaurus gracilis.

Notable specimens

  • AMNH FARB 6810

    American Museum of Natural History complementary

    The best-preserved skull of Plateosaurus, taken apart during preparation so it is available as separate bones. It was described anew in 2011 by Prieto-Márquez and Norell, who referred it to P. erlenbergensis.

    Prieto-Márquez & Norell (2011)

  • SMNS 91296

    Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde pathology

    Bears lesions most likely caused by a fall or a similar form of trauma, though they could alternatively result from a predator attack in which the predator did not penetrate the tail muscle far enough to leave bite traces on the bone.

    Schaeffer et al. (2024)

  • SMNS 13200

    Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde pathology

    A P. trossingensis specimen whose chevron pathologies have been hypothesized to result from capture myopathy induced by a mud-miring trap, consistent with the mud-miring taphonomic scenario for the genus.

    Schaeffer et al. (2024)

References

  1. Prieto-Márquez, A.; Norell, M. A. (2011). Redescription of a nearly complete skull of Plateosaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Trossingen (Germany). American Museum Novitates (3727): 1-58. doi:10.1206/3727.2 prieto-márquez2011a
  2. Schaeffer, J.; Wolff, E.; Witzmann, F.; Ferreira, G. S.; Schoch, R. R.; Mujal, E. (2024). Paleobiological implications of chevron pathology in the sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis from the Upper Triassic of SW Germany. PLOS ONE 19(7): e0306819. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0306819 schaeffer2024a
  3. Meyer, H. V. (1837). Mitteilung an Prof. Bronn (Plateosaurus engelhardti) [message to Prof. Bronn (Plateosaurus engelhardti)]. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie 1837: 316.

    In German. Original description of Plateosaurus engelhardti.

    meyer1837a
  4. Fraas, E. (1913). Die neuesten Dinosaurierfunde in der schwäbischen Trias [The latest dinosaur finds in the Swabian Triassic]. Naturwissenschaften 1(45): 1097-1100. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/BF01493265

    In German. Original description of Plateosaurus trossingensis.

    fraas1913a
  5. Huene, F. von (1905). Trias-Dinosaurier Europas. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 57: 345-349.

    In German. Basionym Sellosaurus gracilis (now Plateosaurus gracilis).

    huene1905a
  6. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026b
  7. Molina-Pérez, R.; Larramendi, A. (2020). Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Sauropods and Other Sauropodomorphs. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    molina-pérez2020a
  8. Moser, M. (2003). Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837 (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) aus dem Feuerletten (Mittelkeuper; Obertrias) von Bayern. Zitteliana Reihe B 24: 3-186.

    Designated the Plateosaurus engelhardti lectotype and paralectotypes.

    moser2003a
  9. Yates, A. M. (2003). The species taxonomy of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Löwenstein Formation (Norian, Late Triassic) of Germany. Palaeontology 46(2): 317-337. Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.0031-0239.2003.00301.x

    Revises the Löwenstein Formation sauropodomorphs; restricts and rediagnoses Plateosaurus gracilis (as Sellosaurus gracilis) on holotype SMNS 5715.

    yates2003b
  10. Galton, P. M. (2012). Case 3560. Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837 (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha): proposed replacement of unidentifiable name-bearing type by a neotype. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 69(3): 203-212. doi:10.21805/bzn.v69i3.a15

    The case for replacing the P. engelhardti name-bearing type; sets out the competing classifications of the German Plateosaurus species.

    galton2012b