Dinosaurs A to Z
Plateosauridae

Platysaurus PLA-ty-SOR-us

Generic sauropod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Platysaurus 7 m (23 ft) long
as long as 4 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic sauropod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Platysaurus
Length
7 m (23 ft)
Period
Late Triassic (227.3–199.5 Mya)
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Plateosauridae Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Triassic-Jurassic prosauropods, ancestors to giant sauropods.

Platysaurus is a plateosauridae known from the Triassic period, of uncertain origin. Most of what’s published comes from a small number of specimens, and the fuller picture of how it lived is still being worked out.

What we know

  • Originally named by Agassiz 1846.