List of sauropodomorph type specimens

This list of specimens is a comprehensive catalogue of all the type specimens and their scientific designations for each of the genera and species that are included in the clade sauropodomorpha.
Sauropodomorpha is a clade of saurischian dinosaurs that includes the largest land animals to have ever existed on Earth, such as Argentinosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Patagotitan. The clade "sauropodomorpha" was created based on the earlier-named and slightly more exclusive clade, Sauropoda. This clade was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878 and it translates to "lizard feet", in reference to the fact that sauropods were unique among the dinosaurs known at the time for having five toes, instead of three (such as in theropods and ornithopods). "Sauropodomorpha" then roughly translates to "in the likeness of the lizard feet". The first sauropodomorph to be described was Cardiodon, named by Sir Richard Owen, although he did not recognize at the time that it was a dinosaur.
Sauropodomorphs were one of the first groups of dinosaurs to appear, originating in the late Triassic period. While ancestrally bipedal, sauropodomorphs increased in mass throughout the Triassic and quadrupedal forms evolved. In the Jurassic period, the first unequivocal sauropods appeared. Thereafter, sauropods lived until the end of the Cretaceous period, and were present on every continent, including Antarctica. The largest sauropods have been estimated to weigh at least 70 metric tons, larger than any other animals besides the largest cetaceans, and possibly even larger.
This list will include the type fossils of each sauropodomorph species. In paleontology, a type specimen is one which is definitionally a member of a biological taxon. Additional specimens can only be "referred" to these taxa if an expert deems them sufficiently similar to the type and publishes that opinion in the scientific literature.
There is no complete, canonical list of all dinosaur taxa or holotype specimens. The primary source for this list is a book called Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Sauropods and Other Sauropodomorphs by Rubén Molina-Pérez and Asier Larramendi which contains every sauropodomorph species described up to the date of its completion (January 1, 2019), including dubious or very fragmentary specimens. This is supplemented by references to the Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs by Gregory Paul and Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages by Thomas Holtz and Luis Rey. Where appropriate, The Paleobiology Database and Fossilworks, which are both online databases of named fossil taxa, are used to supplement the entries from published encyclopedias which are missing or data-deficient. Another useful resource is the Paleobiology Collections Database for the Smithsonian Institution, which has a large and publicly-accessible fossil collection.
Types are also used to diagnose higher-level taxa than an individual. One individual might represent the "type specimen" of a particular species. This species would in turn represent the "type species" of a particular genus, unless it is referred to a previously undescribed genus. Most dinosaur genera are monospecific, therefore most type specimens are also the type species of their respective genera. On this list, the type species of a genus is only noted when it belongs to a genus with multiple referred species, such as Camarasaurus or Plateosaurus. Furthermore, when an animal is different enough from its close relatives that it is given its own family, it is conventional in dinosaur systematics to name a family after the first described, most famous, or most abundant genus assigned to it. Therefore, on this list, the type species of any type genus for a family or sub-family level taxon is also noted when appropriate.
There are several different varieties of type specimen when referring to fossil animals:
All name-bearing type specimens (i.e. holotypes, lectotypes, neotypes, and syntypes) have unique entries on this list, and non-name-bearing types (i.e. paratypes, paralectotypes, topotypes, and holotypes that have been subsumed by a neotype) are noted alongside their name-bearing counterpart.
Some described species are later determined to be invalid by subsequent scientific publications. However, invalid species are sometimes resurrected, such as in the case of Brontosaurus, and sometimes the validity of a species can be controversial among researchers (e.g. the case of Torosaurus and Triceratops). For the purposes of neutrality and completeness, all described species and genera of sauropodomorphs are included, even those that have been considered invalid by subsequent scientific publications.
Naming conventions and terminology follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). Technical terms used include:
Some sauropodomorph taxa are not included on this list. Nomina nuda are excluded because a type does not become recognized by the ICZN until it is published in a scientific journal with a full description.
Some misidentified taxa are also not included so long as there is a scientific consensus with regard to the specimen in question. If a specimen is later referred to a taxon outside sauropodomorpha, it is not included on this list. However, specimens that are identified as sauropodomorphs in publications subsequent to their initial description are included under the name they are given within sauropodomorpha.
Referred taxa are only included on the list as separate entries when their initial description includes a unique type specimen.