Article: The prosauropod dinosaur Azendohsaurus laaroussii from the Upper Triassic of Morocco

Azendohsaurus laaroussii was described by Dutuit as an ornithischian dinosaur on the basis of a dentary fragment and two isolated teeth from the Upper Triassic Argana Formation of Morocco. It was subsequently suggested to be a mixture of ornithischian and saurischian remains. Study of further material demonstrates that all the A. laaroussii material represents a single valid taxon within the Prosauropoda. However, there is insufficient taxonomic information to place it more precisely and it is considered as Prosauropoda incertae sedis. A. laaroussii derives from the Paleorhinus biochron and is hence Carnian in age and one of the earliest known dinosaurs. Some apomorphic characters attributed to the Ornithischia by Sereno and to the Sauropodomorpha by Gauthier are shown to be invalid. A new synapomorphy of the Prosauropoda is proposed, based on the construction of the maxillary.