- published: 29 Sep 2015
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Prolacerta (meaning "before lizard" in Latin) is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile from the Early Triassic. It includes one species, Prolacerta broomi, named in 1935 from the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Remains of Prolacerta have also been found from Antarctica. Prolacerta is traditionally classified as a member of Prolacertiformes, a group of basal archosauromorphs that also includes protorosaurids and tanystropheids. However, most recent phylogenetic analyses place it in a more derived position as the sister taxon of Archosauriformes, thereby making the traditional Prolacertiformes a polyphyletic group. "Prolacertiformes" is currently restricted by definition to Prolaceta alone, and the rest of the traditional prolacertiformes are known as protorosaurs.
The paleontologist Francis Rex Parrington named Prolacerta broomi in 1935 on the basis of a skull from South Africa, and considered it a transitional form between early diapsids and lizards, although he classified it within the archosaurian group Thecodontia. In 1945 Charles Lewis Camp classified Prolacerta as an early lepidosaur more closely related to lizards than to archosaurs. Camp grouped Prolacerta with Protorosaurus, and both would later become part of a larger group of reptiles called Prolacertiformes. Up until the 1980s, Prolacerta and Protorosaurus were often placed in a group called Eosuchia, which consists of early reptiles that were thought to be ancestral to both archosaurs and lepidosauromorphs. As phylogenetic analyses became common in the late 1980s and 1990s, Prolacerta was generally considered a member of Prolacertiformes, which was placed at the base of Archosauromorpha and included other Triassic reptiles such as tanystropheids and Macrocnemus.
""Pamelaria"" is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile known from a single species, ""Pamelaria dolichotrachela"", from the Middle Triassic of India. "Pamelaria" has sprawling legs, a long neck, and a pointed skull with nostrils positioned at the very tip of the snout. Among early archosauromorphs, "Pamelaria" is most similar to "Prolacerta" from the Early Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. Both have been placed in the family Prolacertidae. "Pamelaria", "Prolacerta", and various other Permo-Triassic reptiles such as "Protorosaurus" and "Tanystropheus" have often been placed in a group of archosauromorphs called Protorosauria , which was regarded as one of the most basal group of archosauromorphs. However, more recent phylogenetic analyses indicate that "Pamelaria" and "Prolace...
"Protorosauria" is an extinct group of archosauromorph reptiles from the latest Permian to the early Late Triassic of Asia, Europe, North America. It was named by the English anatomist and paleontologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1871 as an order. Other names that are for the most part equivalent to Protorosauria include "Prolacertiformes" and "Prolacertilia". Protorosaurs are distinguished by their long necks formed by elongated cervical vertebrae, which have ribs that extend backward to the vertebrae behind them. Protorosaurs also have a gap between the quadrate bones and the jugal bones in the back of the skull near the jaw joint, making their skulls resemble those of lizards. Whether or not protorosaurs represent a monophyletic group is uncertain. Only recently has Protorosauria ...
Archosauromorpha is an infraclass of diapsid reptiles that first appeared during the late Permian and became more common during the Triassic.It was defined by Jacques Gauthier, Arnold G.Kluge and Timothy Rowe as the group containing "archosaurs and all other saurians that are closer to archosaurs than they are to lepidosaurs " .In a later publication, Michel Laurin defined Archosauromorpha as the clade containing the most recent common ancestor of Prolacerta, Trilophosaurus, Hyperodapedon and archosaurs and all its descendants; David Dilkes formulated a more inclusive definition of Archosauromorpha, defining it as the clade containing Protorosaurus and all other saurians that are more closely related to Protorosaurus than to Lepidosauria. ---Image-Copyright-and-Permission--- About the aut...
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