Reptilia - Dinosauromorpha - Silesauridae

Diodorus scytobrachion is the only known species of Diodorus, a small-bodied (less than 1 meter body length) dinosauriform known from specimens from Morocco representing several individuals. Diodorus belongs to Silesauridae - a clade of highly dinosaur-like animals currently believed to be the closest relatives of true dinosaurs (the sister taxon to Dinosauria). Diodorus represents the first member of this group discovered in northern Africa, and supports a cosmopolitan distribution for silesaurids in the Middle-Late Triassic.

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Full reference: C. F. Kammerer, S. J. Nesbitt, and N. H. Shubin. 2012. The first basal dinosauriform (Silesauridae) from the Late Triassic of Morocco. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57(2):277-284

Belongs to Diodorus according to C. F. Kammerer et al. 2012

See also Martínez et al. 2016, Martz and Small 2019 and Marzola and Dalla Vecchia 2014

Sister taxa: none

Type specimen: MHNM-ARG 30, a mandible (Partial right dentary). Its type locality is 2.9 km east of Imziln, which is in a Carnian/Norian terrestrial horizon in the Timezgadiouine Formation of Morocco.

Ecology:

Distribution: found only at 2.9 km east of Imziln

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Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.