Prolacertidae

Prolacertids
Temporal range: Induan-Olenekian, 252–247 Ma
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Illustration of the skull of Prolacerta broomi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Crocopoda
Family: †Prolacertidae
Parrington, 1935
Genera

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]

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]

Archosauromorpha
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parrington1935 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bartholomai1979 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sen2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Ezcurra2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).