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Description
A Plateosaurus being stalked by Postosuchus.

Plateosaurus is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Europe. Plateosaurus is a basal (early) sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod". As of 2011, two species are recognized: the type species P. engelhardti from the late Norian and Rhaetian, and the slightly earlier P. gracilis from the lower Norian.

Plateosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with a small skull on a long, mobile neck, sharp but plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind limbs, short but muscular arms and grasping hands with large claws on three fingers, possibly used for defense and feeding. Unusually for a dinosaur, Plateosaurus showed strong developmental plasticity: instead of having a fairly uniform adult size, fully grown individuals were between 4.8 and 10 meters (16 and 33 ft) long and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms (1,300 and 8,800 lb).

sauropodomorph dinosaurs are thought to be the line from which the sauropods evolved, though the sauropodomorphs themselves continued into the early Jurassic period.

Description
A Plateosaurus being stalked by Postosuchus.

Plateosaurus is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Europe. Plateosaurus is a basal (early) sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod". As of 2011, two species are recognized: the type species P. engelhardti from the late Norian and Rhaetian, and the slightly earlier P. gracilis from the lower Norian.

Plateosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with a small skull on a long, mobile neck, sharp but plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind limbs, short but muscular arms and grasping hands with large claws on three fingers, possibly used for defense and feeding. Unusually for a dinosaur, Plateosaurus showed strong developmental plasticity: instead of having a fairly uniform adult size, fully grown individuals were between 4.8 and 10 meters (16 and 33 ft) long and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms (1,300 and 8,800 lb).

sauropodomorph dinosaurs are thought to be the line from which the sauropods evolved, though the sauropodomorphs themselves continued into the early Jurassic period.