The Melanorosauridae were a family of sauropodomorph dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s which lived during the Late Triassic

Late Triassic

The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age...

 and Early Jurassic

Early Jurassic

The Early Jurassic epoch is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic period...

. The name Melanorosauridae was first coined by Friedrich von Huene

Friedrich von Huene

Friedrich von Huene was a German paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.-Biography:...

 in 1929. Huene assigned several families of dinosaurs to the infraorder

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

  Prosauropoda: the Anchisauridae

Anchisauridae

The Anchisauridae were a group of early sauropodomorph dinosaurs first proposed by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1885. The clade consists of Anchisaurus and its nearest relatives. However, it is not clear which other genera are included in the family; many of the dinosaurs once included have since been...

, the Plateosauridae

Plateosauridae

Plateosauridae is a family of plateosaurian sauropodomorphs. Plateosaurids were early sauropodomorph dinosaurs which existed in Asia, Europe and South America during the Late Triassic period. Although several dinosaurs have been classified as plateosaurids over the years, a 2007 study by Adam M....

, the Thecodontosauridae, and the Melanorosauridae. Since then, these families have undergone numerous revisions. Galton and Upchurch (2004) considered Camelotia

Camelotia

Camelotia was a genus of prosauropod or sauropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic of what is now England. Paleontologists are divided on which family it may belong to; in the past, Camelotia has generally been assigned to the prosauropods, but this group of primitive dinosaurs is in constant...

, Lessemsaurus

Lessemsaurus

Lessemsaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur named for the writer of popular science books Don Lessem. The type species, L. sauropoides, was formally described by José Fernando Bonaparte in 1999...

, and Melanorosaurus

Melanorosaurus

Melanorosaurus , is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period. A herbivore from South Africa, it had a large body and sturdy limbs, suggesting it moved about on all fours...

members of the family. A more recent study by Yates (2007) indicates that the melanorosaurs were instead early sauropods. The two members of the Riojasauridae

Riojasauridae

Riojasauridae is a family of sauropod-like dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic. It is known primarily from the genera Riojasaurus and Eucnemesaurus...

, Riojasaurus

Riojasaurus

Riojasaurus was a herbivorous prosauropod dinosaur named after La Rioja Province in Argentina where it was found by José Bonaparte. It lived during the Late Triassic and grew to about long. Riojasaurus is the only known riojasaurid to live in South America.-Description:Riojasaurus had a heavy...

 and Eucnemesaurus

Eucnemesaurus

Eucnemesaurus is a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur genus usually considered to be a synonym of Euskelosaurus. Recent study by Yates , however, indicates that it is valid and the same animal as putative "giant herrerasaurid" Aliwalia....

, have also been placed in Melanorosauridae, which would render the Riojasauridae an invalid taxon

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

.