布里卡納龍屬

布里卡納龍（屬名：Blikanasaurus，意為「布里卡納的蜥蜴」）是在南非東開普省晚三疊世下艾略特組發現僅一具部分後肢而建立的蜥腳形亞目恐龍，模式種兼唯一種克氏布里卡納龍（Blikanasaurus cromptoni）的種名取自多次領導艾略特組（英语：Elliot Formation）露頭考察活動的古生物學家A·W·「弗茲」·克朗普頓（A. W. "Fuzz" Crompton）。 約1965年左右在南非東開普省荷休（英语：Herschel, Eastern Cape）布里卡納山腳的下艾略特組地層出土了一個部分後肢骨。2000年代初在自由邦省萊迪布蘭德丹普拉茨農場的同樣地層出土了第二件標本，僅有一個右蹠骨。近期據傳有發現一個可能歸入布里卡納龍的髂骨，但消息仍有待證實。 由於化石極度稀少使得難以了解布里卡納龍的原貌。唯能透過後肢結構特別厚實來推測其體型粗壯。 因為腿部健壯，布里卡納龍很可能是完全四足的動物，與其他原始蜥腳形亞目不同；過去假設布里卡納龍是種基礎蜥腳下目，現在則認為是基礎蜥腳形亞目；但礙於所知甚少，關於其確切分類關係依然是個謎。1985年描述時建立了專屬的布里卡納龍科，但這個分類群缺乏明確鑑定特徵而不被廣泛接受。以下支序圖顯示目前認為布里卡納龍與其他基礎蜥腳類之間的關聯。 Knoll, Fabien. Review of the tetrapod fauna of the 'Lower Stormberg Group' of the main Karoo Basin (southern Africa) : Implication for the age of the Lower Elliot Formation. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 2004, 175: 73–83. doi:10.2113/175.1.73.  Charig, A. J.; Attridge, J.; Crompton, A. W. On the origin of the sauropods and the classification of the Saurischia. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 1965, 176 (2): 197–221. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1965.tb00944.x.  Galton, Peter M.; Van Heerden, Jacques. Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. And n. Sp.,representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the upper triassic of South Africa. Geobios. 1985, 18 (4): 509–516. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(85)80003-6.  Yates, Adam M.; Kitching, James W. The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 2003, 270 (1525): 1753–1758. PMC 1691423 . PMID 12965005. doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2417.  Yates, Adam M. A definite prosauropod dinosaur from the Lower Elliot Formation (Norian: Upper Triassic) of South Africa. Palaeontologia Africana. 2003, 39. hdl:10539/16435.  Yates, Adam M. A second specimen of Blikanasaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) and the biostratigraphy of the lower Elliot Formation. Palaeontologia Africana. 2008-04-04, 43. hdl:10539/13807.  Wilson, Jeffrey A. Integrating ichnofossil and body fossil records to estimate locomotor posture and spatiotemporal distribution of early sauropod dinosaurs: A stratocladistic approach. Paleobiology. 2005, 31 (3): 400–423. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031[0400:IIABFR]2.0.CO;2.  Upchurch, P.; Barrett, P. M.; Galton, P. M. Barrett, P. M.; Batten, D. J. , 编. A phylogenetic analysis of basal sauropodomorph relationships: Implications for the origin of sauropod dinosaurs. Special Papers in Palaeontology. 2007, 77: 57–90 [2019-03-13]. （原始内容存档于2016-06-18）.  McPhee, Blair W.; Choiniere, Jonah N. A hyper-robust sauropodomorph dinosaur ilium from the Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa: Implications for the functional diversity of basal Sauropodomorpha. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 2016, 123: 177–184. Bibcode:2016JAfES.123..177M. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2016.08.004.  Peyre De Fabrègues, Claire; Allain, Ronan. New material and revision of Melanorosaurus thabanensis, a basal sauropodomorph from the Upper Triassic of Lesotho. PeerJ. 2016, 4: e1639. PMC 4741091 . PMID 26855874. doi:10.7717/peerj.1639.  Galton, Peter M.; Van Heerden, Jacques. Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. And n. Sp.,representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the upper triassic of South Africa. Geobios. 1985, 18 (4): 509–516. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(85)80003-6.  Apaldetti, Cecilia; Martínez, Ricardo N.; Cerda, Ignatio A.; Pol, Diego; Alcober, Oscar. An early trend towards gigantism in Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2018, 2 (8): 1227–1232. PMID 29988169. S2CID 49669597. doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0599-y. hdl:11336/89332 .  生物學主題 恐龍主題