Elessaurus
Sign in to saveElessaurus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph from the Early Triassic of Brazil. It contains a single species, Elessaurus gondwanoccidens. It possessed a variety of features common to basal archosauromorphs, particularly basal tanystropheids such as Macrocnemus. However, it is uncertain whether Elessaurus was a particularly close relative of tanystropheids, and it might instead be closer to other major archosauromorph clades. The genus name refers to "Elessar", an alternate name of the character Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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Elessaurus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph from the Early Triassic of Brazil. It contains a single species, Elessaurus gondwanoccidens. It possessed a variety of features common to basal archosauromorphs, particularly basal tanystropheids such as Macrocnemus. However, it is uncertain whether Elessaurus was a particularly close relative of tanystropheids, and it might instead be closer to other major archosauromorph clades. The genus name refers to "Elessar", an alternate name of the character Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
== Discovery == left|thumb|255x255px|Life restoration by Márcio L. Castro Elessaurus is known from a single holotype specimen, UFSM 11471, which consists of most of a leg connected to parts of the hip and the base of the tail. Despite being fairly complete by the standards of its locale, many of the specimen's bones are flattened or fragmentary. UFSM 11471 was collected from the Bica São Tomé site, an outcrop of the Sanga do Cabral Formation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Based on the presence of Procolophon, the Sanga do Cabral Formation is likely Early Triassic (Induan-Olenekian) in age.