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Lessemsauridae is a clade (family) (2025). 9783030959586, Springer. ISBN 9783030959586 of early sauropodiform dinosaurs that lived in the Triassic and Jurassic of Argentina, South Africa and possibly Lesotho. A phylogenetic analysis performed by Apaldetti and colleagues in 2018 recovered a new clade of sauropodiforms uniting Lessemsaurus, Antetonitrus, and Ingentia which they named Lessemsauridae. It is a node-based taxon, defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Lessemsaurus sauropoides and Antetonitrus ingenipes. Depending on the definition of Sauropoda, Lessemsauridae is either one of the most basal sauropod taxa, or a Sister group of Sauropoda. An additional member of the clade was named later in 2018, Ledumahadi. A 2021 study by Pol and colleagues also assigned the genera Kholumolumo and Meroktenos to the group.
Lessemsaurids could reach large sizes, with Lessemsaurus estimated to have reached a mass of 7 tonnes and the later Ledumahadi estimated to have reached a mass of 12 tonnes.
They had highly pneumatic cervical and dorsal vertebrae, very antero-posteriorly short but tall cervical vertebrae, robust cervicals, a very expanded distal scapula blade, and upright .
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