Plateosaurus Engelhardti

NAME MEANING - Broad Lizard
HEIGHT - 13ft
LENGTH - 20ft - 33ft
WEIGHT -  3.6 tonnes
LOCATION - Europe - Löwenstein formation
TIME PERIOD - late Norian stage of the Late Triassic -  214 to 204 million years ago
DIET - Herbivore (possibly Omnivorous)
CLASSIFICATION - Archosaur - Dinosaur - Saurischia
FAMILY - Sauropodomorph - prosauropod - plateosaurid

Plateosaurus is 1 of the most primitive dinosaurs, it lived at the end of the Triassic period which was when the 1st dinosaurs began to appear on earth, they were very numerous as shown by the shear number of fossils found of the dinosaur, with some fossil beds containing hundreds of individuals.
The mass graves of the Plateosaurus seems to have been from accidental death rather than being preyed on because there is little signs of the bones being chewed on, these dinosaurs could have been victim to sinking into a swampy marsh with large heavy individuals sinking and smaller or younger ones crossing the marsh without sinking.

It had features that resembled both the sauropods and theropods of the future Jurassic and Cretaceous, with the long necks and tails of sauropods and the blade like claws and powerful hind limbs of theropods.

Plateosaurus was once thought to have been a fully quadrupedal animal like the sauropods, but with its wrists being unable to pronate (they were always in a clapping position) it has been settled with the plateosaur family standing bipedaly like a theropod with some exceptions like Melanorosaurus, Antetonitrus, Isanosaurus and Blikanasaurus who where quadrupedal.
Its hands had 5 fingers and 3 claws, 1 large curved claw on a short finger, 2 smaller claws on longer fingers and 2 vestigial fingers which lacked claws, making its hands very unique looking and could have been used to either fend off attackers or to manipulate foliage.

It was discovered in 1834 by a physician "Johann Friedrich Engelhardt" who found a few vertebrae and leg bones of the dinosaur, this fossil would be named 3 years later until this dinosaur got its name Plateosaurus.
Going off fossils we have found that Plateosaurus grew quickly as a Juvenal and varied in size as an adult with some being 16ft long while other grew to 33ft long, these individuals would have been the largest dinosaurs of the Triassic.

The Diet of Plateosaurus was most likely herbivorous with its eating large amounts of plant matter in its environment although there has been some debate stating that Plateosaurus might have been partially Omnivorous, with teeth having different shapes, showing it might have fed on different things than just ferns.

There are 2 species of Plateosaurus
. P.Engelhardti - a plateosaurus which had a large build, standing at the size of a Rhino and lived in the late Norian stage of the Triassic
. P. Gracilis - a Plateosaurus which had a very slender body build compared to the later species it was also from the lower Norian stage of the Triassic, this species was formally known as Sellosaurus Gracilis
There have been many different species over the year of its discovery but they are all now invalid with many being P.Longiceps which is now P.Engelhardti.

Plateosaurus went extinct by the time the Triassic ended and the true Sauropods in the Jurassic took its place.


Not going to lie i actually know very little on this dinosaur, probably because i don't hear much on it, so if anything here is out of date or wrong PLEASE TELL ME i would be happy to update this info to be more accurate, i also worry the legs are a bit long but i am still proud of my 1st attempt
but the main bit i am proud of is the pattern, i was trying something new with my pictures so i added an actual pattern and i am happy of how it came out and i hope you all enjoy this picture 

VIDEOS HAT HELPED
. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1kof…
. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l3gQM…
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