Massopoda

Massopoda Temporal range: Late Triassic - Late Cretaceous, 228–66 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Mounted skeleton of Lufengosaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Plateosauria
Clade:	†Massopoda Yates, 2007
Subgroups[1]
†Ignavusaurus[2] †Sarahsaurus[2] †Riojasauridae †Massospondylidae †Sauropodiformes †Jingshanosaurus †Seitaad †Yunnanosaurus †Anchisauria

The Massopoda is a clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous periods. Massopoda, which was first named by paleontologist Adam M. Yates of the University of the Witwatersrand in 2007, is a stem-based taxon and it was defined by him as all animals more closely related to Saltasaurus loricatus than to Plateosaurus engelhardti.^[3]

Yates assigned the Massopoda to Plateosauria. Within the clade, he assigned the families Massospondylidae (which includes the relatively well-known dinosaur Massospondylus) and Riojasauridae (which includes Riojasaurus) as well as the Sauropoda.^[4]

The following cladogram simplified after an analysis presented by Blair McPhee and colleagues in 2014.^[1]

Massopoda	Riojasauridae  Eucnemesaurus Riojasaurus Massospondylidae  Sauropodiformes  Yunnanosaurus Jingshanosaurus Seitaad Anchisauria

References

1. McPhee, B. W.; Yates, A. M.; Choiniere, J. N.; Abdala, F. (2014). "The complete anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of Antetonitrus ingenipes(Sauropodiformes, Dinosauria): Implications for the origins of Sauropoda". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 171: 151. doi:10.1111/zoj.12127.
2. Apaldetti, C.; Martinez, R. N.; Alcober, O. A.; Pol, D. (2011). Claessens, Leon, ed. "A New Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from Quebrada del Barro Formation (Marayes-El Carrizal Basin), Northwestern Argentina". PLoS ONE 6 (11): e26964. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026964. PMC 3212523. PMID 22096511.
3. Yates, Adam M. (2007). "Solving a dinosaurian puzzle: the identity of Aliwalia rex Galton". Historical Biology 19 (1): 93–123. doi:10.1080/08912960600866953.
4. Yates, Adam M. (2007). "The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria)". In Barrett & Batten (eds.), Evolution and Palaeobiology 77: 9–55. ISBN 978-1-4051-6933-2.