Plateosauravus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of reptiles from the South African Triassic}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = Norian
~{{fossil range|221|202}}

| image = Plateosauravus cullingworthi humerus.jpg

| image_caption = Humerus

| parent_authority = von Huene 1932

| authority = (Sidney Haughton 1924 [originally Plateosaurus])

| taxon = Plateosauravus cullingworthi

| display_parents = 2

}}

Plateosauravus ("grandfather of Plateosaurus") is a basal plateosaurian of uncertain affinities from the Late Triassic Elliot Formation of South Africa.

Sidney Haughton named Plateosaurus cullingworthi in 1924 from a partial skeleton,Haughton, S.H. (1924) "The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series". Annals of the South African Museum 12:323-497. type specimen SAM 3341, 3345, 3347, 3350–51, 3603, 3607. The specific name honoured collector T.L. Cullingworth. Friedrich von Huene reassessed it in 1932 as belonging to a new genus, which he named Plateosauravus.von Huene, F. (1932). "[http://www.keuper.us.edu.pl/02_Keuper-literature/Huene%201932%20I%20Fossile-reptil-ordnung.pdf Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte]". Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, series 1:4, 361 pp. Jacques van Heerden reassigned it to Euskelosaurus in 1979, and this has been how it was usually considered.van Heerden, J. (1979). The morphology and taxonomy of Euskelosaurus (Reptilia: Saurischia; Late Triassic) from South Africa. Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum 4(2):23-84. However, recent study indicates that Euskelosaurus is based on undiagnostic material and thus a nomen dubium; in his series of sauropodomorph and basal sauropod papers, Adam Yates has recommended no longer using Euskelosaurus and has suggested the use of Plateosauravus instead.Yates, A.M. (2003). A new species of the primitive dinosaur Thecodontosaurus (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for the systematics of early dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1(1):1-42Yates, A.M., and Kitching, J.W. (2003). The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270(1525):1753-1758.Yates, A.M. (2006). Solving a dinosaurian puzzle: the identity of Aliwalia rex Galton. Historical Biology, iFirst article, 1–30.{{or|date=February 2021}}

More than a dozen additional partial skeletons have been found in the Kruger National Park after a discovery by game warden Adriaan Louw on 27 March 1995. These include juvenile individuals.Durand, J.F. 2001. The oldest juvenile dinosaurs from Africa. African Earth Sciences 33:597–603.