Megalancosaurus, a possibly arboreal archosauromorph (Reptilia) from the Upper Triassic of northern Italy

ABSTRACT

The Late Triassic reptile Megalancosaurus preonensis Calzavara et al., 1980, was previously known from a single incomplete specimen collected from the Norian “Dolomia di Forni” at the locality of val Preone, near Ampezzo Carnico (Udine, Friuli, northern Italy). The recent discovery of a new specimen in the Zorzino Limestone, also of Norian age, at a locality near Zogno (Bergamo Prealps, Lombardy, northern Italy) allows a more complete description of the skeleton of Megalancosaurus preonensis and attribution of three other specimens, previously interpreted as juvenile individuals of Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus to the same taxon.

Megalancosaurus was a small reptile with a high degree of adaptation toward arboreal life, and is probably an archosauromorph.