Efraasia

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Efraasia
Fossil range: Late Triassic

Fossil

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Genus:	Efraasia Galton, 1973

Binomial name

Efraasia minor
(Fraas, 1908)

Synonyms

Teratosaurus minorFraas, 1908

Efraasia (pronounced "E-FRAHS-ee-A") was a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur. It was a quadrupedal herbivore which lived during the Late Triassic around 210 million years ago, in what is now Germany. It is named after Eberhard Fraas, its discoverer. Efraasia was approximately 20 feet (6 meters) in length.

[edit] Classification and history

The fossils of Efraasia have been misidentified at least four times. Originally the fossils that would become known as Efraasia were mixed in with an unrelated rauisuchian. The mixed-up fossils were named Teratosaurus by Friedrich von Huene in 1908, and when the mistake was discovered by Eberhard Fraas, the rauisuchian portions inherited the Teratosaurus name. Fraas actually considered Efraasia to be synonymous with another dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus. In 1932 it was identified as Palaeosaurus.

By 1984, it was thought the remaining fossils were actually portions of a juvenile Sellosaurus, but eighteen years later, were finally identified as a separate genus. The name Efraasia was given to these fossils. Some internet sites still confuse the two genera. Efraasia was once thought to be a relatively small dinosaur, but this was because the known fossils were from a juvenile animal. Efraasia attained a length of 6 meters in adulthood.

Efraasia is a primitive sauropodomorph, somewhat more advanced than Thecodontosaurus, but less advanced than prosauropods like Plateosaurus and sauropods like Anchisaurus. Like many primitive sauropodomorphs, Efraasia might have been partially bipedal and partly quadrupedal.

The type species is E. minor.