Plateosaurus longiceps Jaekel, 1913

Holotype.

MB. R. 1937 (‘ Skelett XXIV’), complete skull. The skull was originally associated with various vertebrae and bones of the appendicular skeleton, which can no longer be located (Galton 2001 a, b).

Type locality.

Baerecke-Limpricht brick-clay pit along the present-day highway B 79 between Halberstadt and Quedlinburg near Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt.

Type horizon.

Top of Arnstadt Formation, Middle Keuper Subgroup. Age: Late Triassic (Norian: Sevatian).

Referred material.

MB houses a collection of additional skeletal remains of Plateosaurus from the Baerecke-Limpricht brick-clay pit near Halberstadt.

Diagnosis.

Distinguished by the following combination of features: diapophysis of sacral vertebra 1 forming broad sheet with semicircular outline and narrow distal half on adjacent edge of first sacral rib; diapophysis of sacral 2 extending posterolaterally and tapering gradually; femur sigmoidal; and anterior caudal centra with subparallel articular surfaces rather than wedge-shaped (Galton 2001 b). However, Schaeffer (pers. comm.) has questioned the diagnostic value of these features.

Comments.

The material is stratigraphically younger than that from Trossingen, and Schaeffer (pers. comm.) noted differences in his morphometric analysis between specimens of Plateosaurus from Trossingen and Halberstadt, respectively.

References.

Jaekel (1913–1914), F. Huene (1932 b), Galton (2001 a, b), Yates (2003).