Genus
Valid Extinct

Melanorosaurus

Haughton 1924
Etymology Reptile de la montagne noire

Melanorosaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period. An omnivore from South Africa, it had a large body and sturdy limbs, suggesting it moved quadrupedally. Its limb bones were massive and heavy like the limb bones of true sauropods.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
9
Group
Dinosaures
Terrestrial
Melanorosaurus
click to enlarge
Melanorosaurus readi restoration, • Based proportionally on a skeletal reconstruction by Scott Hartman. [1] • The coastal setting is not meant to imply that this animal lived near the coast. It was chosen for artistic reasons. • The colours and/or patterns, as with nearly all reconstructions of prehistoric creatures, are speculative. NOTE: I often update my images. If you want to have any of my images on a website, please (if possible) don’t host/save it to the website server. I’d prefer it if the image's Wikimedia URL is used. This means that if I update an image, it will be updated on the site as well. Thanks. © Steveoc 86 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Saurischia Unranked clade
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Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
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Massopoda Unranked clade
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Sauropodiformes Unranked clade
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Melanorosaurus Genus
Fossil sites 9 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇱🇸 Lesotho
5
🇿🇦 South Africa
4
Geological formations
Elliot
9
Temporal distribution
Sinemurian (199.5–192.9 Ma)
2
Norian (227.3–205.7 Ma)
7
Species (2)
Melanorosaurus readi 227 Ma
Roccosaurus tetrasacralis nomen nudum, species not entered Melanorosaurus
Synonyms (2)
Roccosaurus nomen nudum Melanorosaurus
Roccosaurus tetrasacralis nomen nudum, species not entered Melanorosaurus
Bibliography
Original description
S. H. Haughton. 1924. The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series. Annals of the South African Museum 12:323-497
Bibliography (5)
F. Abdala, R. Damiani, and A. M. Yates, J. Neveling. 2007. A non-mammaliaform cynodont from the Upper Triassic of South Africa: a therapsid Lazarus taxon?. Palaeontologia africana 42:17-23
A. M. Yates. 2007. The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria). Special Papers in Palaeontology 77:9-55
J. v. Heerden and P. M. Galton. 1997. The affinities of <i>Melanorosaurus</i> – a Late Triassic prosauropod dinosaur from South Africa. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 1997(1):39-55 DOI ↗
J. W. Kitching and M. A. Raath. 1984. Fossils from the Elliot and Clarens Formations (Karoo Sequence) of the northeastern Cape, Orange Free State and Lesotho, and a suggested biozonation based on tetrapods. Palaeontologia Africana 25:111-125
S. H. Haughton. 1924. The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series. Annals of the South African Museum 12:323-497