page_title: Panphagia
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Panphagia / Discovery
caption_attribution_description: Silhouette reconstruction of the skeleton of Panphagia protos. Reconstruction shows preserved bones (white) and missing bones (light grey for left side; dark grey for right side). Body length is approximately 1.30 m.
context_page_description: Panphagia is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur described in 2009. It lived around 231 million years ago, during the Carnian age of the Late Triassic period in what is now northwestern Argentina. Fossils of the genus were found in the La Peña Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin. The name Panphagia comes from the Greek words pan, meaning "all", and phagein, meaning "to eat", in reference to its inferred omnivorous diet. Panphagia is one of the earliest known dinosaurs, and is an important find which may mark the transition of diet in early sauropodomorph dinosaurs.
context_section_description: Fossils of Panphagia were found in late 2006 by the Argentinean paleontologist Ricardo N. Martínez in rocks of the Ischigualasto Formation of Valle Pintado, Ischigualasto Provincial Park, San Juan Province, Argentina. The bones were found at approximately the same level as a 231.4 million year old ash layer, indicating it lived during the early Carnian of the Late Triassic. Panphagia is currently known from holotype PVSJ 874, the disarticulated remains of one partially grown individual of about 1.30 metres (4.3 ft) long. Portions of the skull, vertebrae, pectoral girdle, pelvic girdle, and hindlimb bones have been recovered. The russet-colored fossils were embedded in a greenish sandstone matrix and took several years to prepare and describe.
caption: Silhouette reconstruction of the skeleton of Panphagia protos
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