Prolacertidae is an extinct family of archosauromorph reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic epoch. It was named in 1935 by the British palaeontologist Francis Rex Parrington to include the species Prolacerta broomi of South Africa and Antarctica.[1] In 1979 a second species, Kadimakara australiensis, was described from Australia.[2] Several other genera, such as Macrocnemus, Pamelaria and Prolacertoides, have also been assigned to this family in the past,[3] but these have been placed elsewhere by later studies, leaving Prolacerta and Kadimakara as the only well-supported members.[4]
| Prolacertids | |
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| Illustration of the skull of Prolacerta broomi | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
| Clade: | Crocopoda |
| Family: | †Prolacertidae Parrington, 1935 |
| Genera | |
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The prolacertids were historically placed within the paraphyletic group Prolacertiformes along with other basal, long-necked archosauriforms like Protorosaurus and the tanystropheids. However, more recent research has shown that the prolacertids were only distantly related to other "prolacertiforms", and were instead among the closest relatives of Archosauriformes.[4]
The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Ezcurra (2016):[4]
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References
edit- ^ Parrington, F. R. (1935). "XVI.—On Prolacerta broomi, gen. et sp. n., and the origin of lizards". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 16 (92): 197–205. doi:10.1080/00222933508655037.
- ^ Bartholomai, A. (1979). "New lizard-like reptiles from the Early Triassic of Queensland". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 3 (3): 225–234. Bibcode:1979Alch....3..225B. doi:10.1080/03115517908527795.
- ^ Sen, K. (March 2003). "Pamelaria dolichotrachela, a new prolacertid reptile from the Middle Triassic of India". Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 21 (6): 663–681. Bibcode:2003JAESc..21..663S. doi:10.1016/S1367-9120(02)00110-4.
- ^ a b c Ezcurra, M. D. (2016). "The phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs, with an emphasis on the systematics of proterosuchian archosauriforms". PeerJ. 4: e1778. doi:10.7717/peerj.1778. PMC 4860341. PMID 27162705.
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