Family †Massospondylidae Phylum Chordata | Class Reptilia Scientific name Coloradisaurus brevis Rank Genus | |
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Similar Euskelosaurus, Eucnemesaurus, Riojasaurus, Lessemsaurus, Efraasia | ||
Coloradisaurus (meaning "Colorados [from Los Colorados Formation] lizard") is a genus of massospondylid sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Late Triassic period (Norian to Rhaetian stages) in what is now La Rioja Province, Argentina. It is known from the holotype PVL 5904, nearly complete skull. It was discovered and collected from the upper section of the Los Colorados Formation. Originally named Coloradia by Jose F. Bonaparte in 1978, this name had already been assigned to a moth, and so the animal was renamed. The genus was first named by David Lambert in 1983 and the type species is Coloradisaurus brevis. It may in fact be an adult specimen of Mussaurus. Cladistic analyses by Yates (2007), Yates et al. (2010, 2011) and Novas et al. (2011) found that Coloradisaurus is basal to the Glacialisaurus-Lufengosaurus clade within Massospondylidae.
