Pantydraco

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Pantydraco
Fossil range: Late Triassic or Early Jurassic

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Family:	unknown
Genus:	Pantydraco

Binomial name

Pantydraco caducus
Galton, Yates, and Kermack, 2007

Pantydraco (meaning "Pant-y-ffynnon dragon", referring to the quarry where it was found) was a genus of basal sauropodomorph from the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic of South Wales, United Kingdom. It is based on a partial juvenile skeleton once thought to belong to Thecodontosaurus.

1 History
2 Paleobiology
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

In 2003, Adam Yates named the new species Thecodontosaurus caducus for a skull and partial skeleton (neck, partial shoulder girdle, and humeri) of a juvenile dinosaur, with additional material known for it. This material had been known in the scientific literature since 1984, and had been used to represent the genus Thecodontosaurus.^[1] However, changed understanding of the relationships and characteristics of basal sauropodomorphs (also known as prosauropods) has led Peter Galton, Yates, and D. Kermack to give T. caducus its own genus.^[2]

[edit] Paleobiology

As a basal sauropodomorph, Pantydraco would have been a low-browsing herbivore, probably mostly bipedal.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Yates, Adam M. (2003). "A new species of the primitive dinosaur Thecodontosaurus (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for the systematics of early dinosaurs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1 (1): 1-42.
^ Galton, Peter M.; Yates, Adam M; and Kermack, D. (2007). "Pantydraco n. gen. for Thecodontosaurus caducus YATES, 2003, a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Upper Triassic or Lower Jurassic of South Wales, UK.". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 243 (1): 119-125.
^ Galton, Peter M.; and Upchurch, Paul (2004). "Prosauropoda", in Weishampel, David B.; Osmólska, Halszka; and Dodson, Peter (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 232-258. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.