A derived sauropodiform dinosaur and other sauropodomorph material from the Late Triassic of Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Abstract

Although sauropodomorph dinosaurs have been known for a long time from the Late Triassic of central Europe, sauropodomorph diversity and faunal composition has remained controversial until today. Here we review sauropodomorph material from the Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The material comes from three different but geographically close localities and represents at least three different taxa. Apart from the common genus Plateosaurus, the material includes remains of two different large, robustly built sauropodomorphs. One of these is described as a new taxon, Schleitheimia schutzi n. gen. et sp., on the basis of an unusual ilium and associated axial and appendicular material. Schleitheimia represents a derived basal sauropodiform and possibly the immediate outgroup to Sauropoda, and thus is the most derived sauropodomorph known from the Late Triassic of Europe. These results thus highlight the diversity of sauropodomorphs in the Late Triassic of central Europe and further indicate widespread sauropodomorph survival across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.