Prosauropods - Time Range

Time Range

Among the very first dinosaurs to evolve in the middle Triassic Period, about 230 million years ago (Mya), they became the dominant herbivores by half way through the late Triassic (during the Norian stage). Their perceived decline in the early Cretaceous is most likely a bias in fossil sampling, as most fossils are known from Europe and North America. Sauropods were still the dominant herbivores in the Gondwanan landmasses, however. The spread of flowering plants (angiosperms) and "advanced" ornithischians, another major group of herbivorous dinosaurs (noted for their highly developed chewing mechanisms), are most likely not a major factor in sauropod decline in the northern continents. Like all non-avian dinosaurs, the sauropodomorphs became extinct 65 Mya, during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

The earliest and most basal sauropodomorphs known are Chromogisaurus novasi and Panphagia protos, both from the Ischigualasto Formation, dated to 231.4 million years ago (late Ladinian age of the Middle Triassic according to the ICS; alternately called the early Carnian age of the Late Triassic in the system used by the Geological Society of America). Some studies have found Eoraptor lunensis (also from the Ischigualasto Formation), traditionally considered a theropod, to be an early member of the sauropodomorph lineage, which would make it the most basal sauropodomorph known. Additional fragmentary remains from Madagascar may represent an even earlier sauropodomorph from the middle Triassic.