Lutungutali

Lutungutali
Temporal range: ?Middle Triassic, ?Anisian
Holotype ilium with a scale bar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia (?)
Family: Silesauridae
Clade: Sulcimentisauria
Genus: Lutungutali
Peecook et al., 2013
Type species
Lutungutali sitwensis
Peecook et al., 2013

Lutungutali (meaning "high hip" in the Bemba language) is an extinct genus of silesaurid dinosauriform from the Middle Triassic of Zambia. The single type species of the genus is Lutungutali sitwensis. Lutungutali was named in 2013 and described from a fossil specimen, holotype NHCC LB32, including hip bones and tail vertebrae. The specimen was collected in 2009 from the upper Ntawere Formation, which dates to the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic. Lutungutali is the first known silesaurid from Zambia and, along with the Tanzanian silesaurid Asilisaurus and dinosauriform Nyasasaurus, the oldest bird-line archosaur known from body fossils (i.e. parts of the skeleton).[1]

  1. ^ Peecook, B. R.; Sidor, C. A.; Nesbitt, S. J.; Smith, R. M. H.; Steyer, J. S.; Angielczyk, K. D. (2013). "A new silesaurid from the upper Ntawere Formation of Zambia (Middle Triassic) demonstrates the rapid diversification of Silesauridae (Avemetatarsalia, Dinosauriformes)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (5): 1127. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.755991.