Hindlimb osteology and distribution of basal dinosauromorphs from the Late Triassic of North America

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Abstract
The recent discovery of early dinosauromorphs from North America demonstrates that they were contemporaries with dinosaurs and other basal archosaurs during a substantial portion of the Late Triassic Period. Hindlimb material (femora, tibiae, a fibula, astragalocalcanea, and phalanges) of Dromomeron romeri, a non-dinosauriform dinosauromorph from the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation from north-central New Mexico, is described. A new species of Dromomeron from the lower portion of the Chinle Formation (eastern Arizona) and Dockum Group (northern Texas) is also described, based on several disarticulated femora and tibiae. D. romeri, Lagerpeton, and the new taxon form the sister group to all other dinosauromorphs and demonstrate that this clade, Lagerpetidae, persisted well into the Norian. Lagerpetidae is supported by several synapomorphies: femoral head hook-shaped in medial and lateral views; ventral emargination on the anterolateral side of the femoral head; an enlarged posteromed...

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