Asilisaurus
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Asilisaurus Temporal range: Middle Triassic, 245 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauriformes |
| Clade: | †Silesauridae |
| Genus: |
†Asilisaurus Nesbitt et al., 2010 |
| Species: | †A. kongwe |
| Binomial name | |
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Asilisaurus kongwe Nesbitt et al., 2010 |
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Asilisaurus (/ɑːˌsiːliːˈsɔːrəs/ a-SEE-lee-SAWR-əs; from Swahili, asili ("ancestor" or "foundation"), and Greek, σαυρος (sauros, "lizard") is an extinct genus of silesaurid archosaur. It is one of the oldest known animals on the dinosaur/pterosaur side of the archosaurian tree (the Avemetatarsalia), dating to about 245 million years ago.
Fossils were uncovered in Tanzania and date back to the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic. It was described in 2010 by a team of researchers from the United States, Germany, and South Africa, in the journal Nature; the type species is A. kongwe. It is the first example of an avian-line radiation during the Anisian, with the diversification of archosaurs during this time previously only documented from crocodylian-line archosaurs. It was the first non-dinosaurian dinosauriform recovered from Africa.
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