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Eucnemesaurus fortis

Reptilia

Taxonomy
Eucnemesaurus fortis was named by Van Hoepen (1920). Its type specimen is TrM 119, a partial skeleton, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is farm Zonderhout (291), Slabberts (zone A/5), which is in a Norian/Rhaetian terrestrial mudstone in the Elliot Formation of South Africa. It is the type species of Eucnemesaurus.

It was considered a nomen dubium by Galton and Upchurch (2004).

Synonyms
Synonymy list
YearName and author
1920Eucnemesaurus fortis Van Hoepen p. 93 figs. 1, 3-7, Pl. 11-13
1924Eucnemesaurus fortis Haughton
1939Eucnemesaurus fortis Kuhn p. 67
1940Eucnemesaurus fortis Huene p. 262
1941Eucnemesaurus fortis Huene p. 141
1954Eucnemesaurus fortis Haughton and Brink p. 37
1967Eucnemesaurus fortis Charig p. 712
1970Eucnemesaurus fortis Ellenberger p. 346
1970Eucnemesaurus fortis Steel p. 57
1985Aliwalia rex Galton
1988Aliwalia rex Paul p. 250
1990Aliwalia rex Sues p. 147
1998Aliwalia rex Galton and Van Heerden pp. 172-174
2004Aliwalia rex Knoll p. 76
2004Aliwalia rex Langer p. 27
2005Eucnemesaurus fortis Yates pp. 274-275
2007Eucnemesaurus fortis Yates p. 96
2009Eucnemesaurus fortis Barrett p. 1032
2010Eucnemesaurus fortis Langer et al. p. 70
2015Eucnemesaurus fortis McPhee et al. p. 4
2016Eucnemesaurus fortis Peyre de Fabrègues and Allain p. 18
2020Eucnemesaurus fortis Peyre de Fabrègues and Allain p. 26
2023Eucnemesaurus fortis Sciscio et al. p. 3

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
—Osteichthyes()
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
—Tetrapoda
—Reptiliomorpha
—Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
—Cotylosauria()
—Amniota
—Sauropsida
classReptilia
subclassEureptilia()
RankNameAuthor
—Romeriida
—Diapsida()
—Archosauromorpha(Huene 1946)
—Crocopoda
—ArchosauriformesGauthier 1986
—Eucrocopoda
—Archosauria()
informalAvemetatarsalia
—Ornithodira
—Dinosauromorpha
—Dinosauriformes
—Dinosauria()
—Saurischia()
—Eusaurischia
—Sauropodomorpha(Huene 1932)
—Massopoda
—Riojasauridae
genusEucnemesaurus
speciesfortis

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

†Eucnemesaurus fortis Van Hoepen 1920
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Invalid names: Aliwalia rex Galton 1985 [synonym]
Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
A. M. Yates 2007A sauropodomorph with: a small accessory lamina branching off of the paradiapophyseal lamina and dividing the middle chonos in the middle dorsal vertebrae; an abrupt proximal end of the lesser trochanter; a fourth trochanter with a curved and oblique long axis.
B. W. McPhee et al. 2015E. entaxonis differs from E. fortis in the following features: (1) E. fortis presents a femur that is subcircular in cross-section rather than elliptical, and (2) the holotype of E. fortis (TM 119) displays a distal tibia in which the mediolaterally extensive posterior surface extends as far laterally as the anterior ascending process (for articulation with the astragalus). It is possible that the distal embayment present on the fourth trochanter in E. fortis is absent in E. entaxonis, but poor preservation in the latter taxon precludes confirmation of this. Furthermore, a dorsal neural arch of E. fortis possesses a unique accessory lamina within the centrodiapophyseal fossa—a feature that cannot be confirmed in the preserved material of E. entaxonis. This feature therefore remains a valid diagnostic character of E. fortis for the time being.