Named By: | D. Pol, A. Garrido & I. A. Cerda in 2011 |
Time Period: | Early Jurassic, 199 Ma |
Location: | Argentina - Las Leoneras Formation |
Size: | Holotype is a subadult and very roughly estimated to be about 2.5 meters long, but fully grown adults were almost certainly larger than this |
Diet: | Herbivore |
Fossil(s): | Partial remains of a subadult, including dentary, vertebrae, pectoral girdle, pelvis and sacrum |
Classification: | | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Saurischia | Sauropodomorpha | Anchisauria | |
Leonerasaurus is a basal genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur. Currently, there is only one species known, named L. taquetrensis by Diego Pol, Alberto Garrido and Ignacio A. Cerda in 2011. The fossil, 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 witnessed a great degree of convergent evolution.