Leonerasaurus

Leonerasaurus is a new genus of herbivorous prosauropod dinosaur. It was described in 2011 by Diego Pol, Alberto Garrido, and Ignacio A. Cerda.

The type specimen, an incomplete subadult individual, was found in the Las Leoneras Formation in Argentina. This formation is probably Early Jurassic in age. Leonerasaurus was a small non-sauropod sauropodomorph, showing an unusual combination of basal and derived characters. This indicates that the evolution of early sauropodomorphs saw a lot of convergent evolution.

The type species is L. taquetrensis. Leonerasaurus is related to the contemporary genera Anchisaurus and Aardonyx.

The type specimen of Leonerasaurus consisted of parts of a dentary and some teeth, neck and trunk vertebrae, a sacrum, parts of the pectoral (shoulder) and pelvis (hip) girdle, as well as several limb bones. Leonerasaurus means "Las Leoneras lizard", after the place it was found.

Article by Brian Tinnon 12/14/2011

P.S. Please add another photo of Leonerasaurus (*NTamura's reconstruction).