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Concept
Dinosauromorpha
Summary
Dinosauromorpha is a clade of avemetatarsalian archosaurs (reptiles closer to birds than to crocodilians) that includes the Dinosauria (dinosaurs) and some of their close relatives. It was originally defined to include dinosauriforms and lagerpetids, with later formulations specifically excluding pterosaurs from the group. Birds are the only dinosauromorphs which survive to the present day.
The name "Dinosauromorpha" was briefly coined by Michael J. Benton in 1985. It was considered an alternative name for the group "Ornithosuchia", which was named by Jacques Gauthier to correspond to archosaurs closer to dinosaurs than to crocodilians. Although "Ornithosuchia" was later recognized as a misnomer (since ornithosuchids are now considered closer to crocodilians than to dinosaurs), it was still a more popular term than Dinosauromorpha in the 1980s. The group encompassed by Gauthier's "Ornithosuchia" and Benton's "Dinosauromorpha" is now given the name Avemetatarsalia.
In 1991, Paul Sereno redefined Dinosauromorpha as a node-based clade, defined by a last common ancestor and its descendants. In his definition, Dinosauromorpha included the last common ancestor of Lagerpeton (a lagerpetid), Marasuchus (a possible junior synonym of Lagosuchus), Pseudolagosuchus (now considered a synonym of the silesaurid Lewisuchus), Dinosauria (including Aves), and all its descendants. This definition was intended to correspond to a clade including lagerpetids and crownward bird-line archosaurs, but not pterosaurs or other archosaurs.
In 2011, Dinosauromorpha was redefined by Sterling Nesbitt to be a branch-based clade, defined by including reptiles closer to one group than to another. Under this definition, Dinosauromorpha included all reptiles closer to dinosaurs (represented by Passer domesticus, the house sparrow), rather than pterosaurs (represented by Pterodactylus), ornithosuchids (represented by Ornithosuchus), or other pseudosuchians (represented by Crocodylus niloticus, the Nile crocodile).
Official source
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