Tasmaniosaurus

Tasmaniosaurus ('lizard from Tasmania', although this genus is not a true lizard) is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile known from the Knocklofty Formation (Early Triassic) of West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The type species is T. triassicus. This genus is notable not only due to being one of the most complete Australian Triassic reptiles known, but also due to being a very close relative of Archosauriformes. Once believed to be a proterosuchid, this taxon is now believed to have been intermediate between advanced non-archosauriform archosauromorphs such as Prolacerta, and basal archosauriforms such as Proterosuchus. Features traditionally used to define Archosauria and later Archosauriformes, such as the presence of an antorbital fenestra and serrated teeth, are now known to have evolved prior to those groups due to their presence in Tasmaniosaurus.

== History and classification == left|thumb|367x367px|Blocks of the type specimen First named as a nomen nudum in 1974, the genus received a formal description by paleontologists Charles Lewis Camp and Maxwell Banks in 1978. These descriptions considered it a proterosuchid archosaur. A redescription by British paleontologist Tony Thulborn in 1986 agreed with this interpretation. Since then, cladistic work has redefined the term "archosaur" to only include Avemetatarsalia (a lineage including pterosaurs and dinosaurs, such as modern birds) and Pseudosuchia (a lineage including modern crocodylians and their extinct relatives such as aetosaurs and raisuchids). As proterosuchids evolved prior to the split between these two groups, they are not considered archosaurs using this definition. In lieu of this revelation, the clade Archosauriformes is now used to encompass proterosuchids and archosaurs (as well as several other families) under one group. Archosauriformes is itself a component of Archosauromorpha, a broader clade which refers to all animals more closely related to archosaurs than to lepidosaurs, the other main group of reptiles including lizards, snakes and tuataras.