Plateosauravus

grandfather of Plateosaurus ("Plateosaurus ancestor")

• Plateosaur(us) · Greek (genus name) · Plateosaurus, from Greek 'platys' (flat) + 'sauros' (lizard)
• avus · Latin · grandfather, ancestor

The name combines Plateosaurus, a well-known European early sauropodomorph, with the Latin word for "grandfather". Von Huene gave the South African fossils this name because he saw them as an ancestral, "grandfather" form related to Plateosaurus. The species had first been described as a species of Plateosaurus.

Named by

von Huene

Year named

1932

Period

Late Triassic

Found in

Elliot Formation, South Africa

A basal sauropodomorph (non-sauropod "prosauropod"-grade) with type species P. cullingworthi, originally described by Haughton in 1924 as a species of Plateosaurus. Its relationship to Euskelosaurus has been debated, and some authors have treated the two as the same genus. Despite the name, it is not a direct ancestor of Plateosaurus.