Melanorosaurus

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.

A picture published with the record for Melanorosaurus.

Steveoc 86 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
SauropodiformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida
Length
12 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 35 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 227.3 Mya and 192.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 7 of 9 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 9 occurrencesEarly Jurassic228–227 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences222–221 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences221–220 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences220–218 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences217–216 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences211–210 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences201–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences195–193 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences228 Mya192.2 Mya

9 occurrences of Melanorosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

9 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

  • Elliot Formation · Stormberg GroupMohale's Hoek, Leribe, Mafeteng · LS · 227.3–192.9 Mya5
  • Elliot Formation · Stormberg GroupEastern Cape, Free State · ZA · 227.3–192.9 Mya4
Elliot — 30.52°S, 27.48°EElliot — 28.83°S, 28.07°EElliot — 29.88°S, 27.35°EElliot — 29.33°S, 27.52°EElliot — 29.80°S, 27.40°EElliot — 31.23°S, 27.00°EElliot — 30.62°S, 27.35°EElliot — 29.22°S, 27.34°EElliot — 29.11°S, 27.32°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Melanorosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Melanorosaurus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Melanorosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Melanorosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 9 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Melanorosaurus

Credit
Steveoc 86
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSauropodiformes through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Haughton 1924