Pamelaria

Pamelaria is an extinct genus of allokotosaurian archosauromorph reptile known from a single species, Pamelaria dolichotrachela, from the Middle Triassic of India. Pamelaria has sprawling legs, a long neck, and a pointed skull with nostrils positioned at the very tip of the snout. Among early archosauromorphs, Pamelaria is most similar to Prolacerta from the Early Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. Both have been placed in the family Prolacertidae. Pamelaria, Prolacerta, and various other Permo-Triassic reptiles such as Protorosaurus and Tanystropheus have often been placed in a group of archosauromorphs called Protorosauria (alternatively called Prolacertiformes), which was regarded as one of the most basal group of archosauromorphs. However, more recent phylogenetic analyses indicate that Pamelaria and Prolacerta are more closely related to Archosauriformes than are Protorosaurus, Tanystropheus, and other protorosaurs, making Protorosauria a polyphyletic grouping.

A 2015 analysis by Nesbitt et al. found that Pamelaria was the basalmost member of a newly formulated archosauromorph group also containing the Trilophosauridae and the newly redescribed genus Azendohsaurus, which had previously been mistaken for a sauropodomorph dinosaur. This new group was called the Allokotosauria. Later studies generally agreed with Nesbitt et al.'s findings, but some additionally postulated that Pamelaria was more closely related to Azendohsaurus than to trilophosaurids.