Pterospondylus

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Pterospondylus
Fossil range: Late Triassic

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Superfamily:	Coelophysoidea
Family:	uncertain
Genus:	Pterospondylus

Binomial name

Pterospondylus trielbae
Jaekel, 1913-14

Pterospondylus (meaning "winged vertebra") is the name given to a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic. It was a coelophysoid theropod which lived in what is now Germany. The type species, Pterospondylus trielbae, was described by Jaekel in 1913-14 for a single back vertebra.^[1] Sometimes, it is aligned with Procompsognathus,^[2] or even considered to be synonymous with it,^[3] despite being based on a vertebra that is twice the size of the corresponding bone in Procompsognathus.^[4]

[edit] References

^ Jaekel, O. (1913-14). Über die Wirbeltierefunde in der oberen Trias von Halberstadt. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 1:155-215.
^ von Huene, F. (1932). Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihte Entwicklung und Geschichte. Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie 1(4). 361 p. [German]
^ Steel, R. (1970). Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart, 1-87.
^ Ostrom, J.H. (1981). Procompsognathus — theropod or thecodont? Palaeontographica Abstract A, 175(4-6):179-195.