Silesaurus

[Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@inetia.pl>]

I've found this abstract of a forthcoming article on J. Dzik's homepage.

http://www.paleo.pan.pl/people/dzik/public.htm

It seems that, as compared with earlier informal reports, which described 
_Silesaurus_ as a basal ornithopod, the author has now decided to move it back 
towards the root of the Dinosauria.

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (in press).
A beaked herbivorous archosaur with dinosaur affinities from the early Late 
Triassic of Poland

Jerzy Dzik
Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warszawa, Poland. e-mail: 
dzik@twarda.pan.pl

Abstract. An accumulation of skeletons of the pre-dinosaur _Silesaurus 
opolensis_ gen. et sp. n. is described from the Keuper (Late Triassic) 
claystone of KrasiejÃw in southern Poland. The strata are correlated with the 
late Carnian Lehrberg Beds and contain a diverse assemblage of tetrapods, 
including the phytosaur Paleorhinus, which in other regions of the world 
co-occurs with the oldest dinosaurs. A narrow pelvis with long pubes and the 
extensive development of laminae in the cervical vertebrae place _S. opolensis_ 
close to the origin of the clade Dinosauria above _Pseudolagosuchus_, which 
agrees with its geological age. Among the advanced characters is the beak on 
the dentaries, and the relatively low tooth count. The teeth have low crowns 
and wear facets, which are suggestive of herbivory. The elongate, but weak, 
front limbs are probably a derived feature.