Arcusaurus
Arcusaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian to Sinemurian stages) of South Africa.
| Arcusaurus Temporal range: Early Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Bagualosauria |
| Genus: | †Arcusaurus Yates et al., 2011 |
| Species | |
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Arcusaurus was first named by Adam Yates, Matthew Bonnan and Johann Neveling in 2011 and the type species is Arcusaurus pereirabdalorum. The generic name is derived from Latin arcus, "rainbow", a reference to the Rainbow Nation. The specific epithet honours Lucille Pereira and Fernando Abdala who discovered the fossils.
A phylogenetic study of Arcusaurus found it to be a basal sauropodomorph, placing it as the sister taxon of Efraasia and all of the more derived sauropodomorphs. Since Efraasia is known from the Norian stage of the Late Triassic, the close relationship with Arcusaurus implies that there was a 35-million-year ghost lineage of sauropodomorphs stretching from Late Triassic forms to Arcusaurus. However, Arcusaurus possesses many features unique to more advanced groups included in the clade Plateosauria, raising doubts about the results of the phylogenetic analysis.