English: Size comparison of the Upper Triassic European (primarily German) non-sauropod sauropodomorph Plateosaurus. Plateosaurus gracilis (formerly Sellosaurus) is here represented by the holotype, SMNS 5175 (in dark blue) with an estimated length of 4.5 m (15 ft) or more, and the larger specimen listed as GPIT 'Aixheim', which has been postulated to have reached 6 m (20 ft). The silhouettes and sizes are based on the diagrams in Yates (2003), which are drawn after the specimens GPIT 18318a, SMNS 5175, and GPIT 18392, with the incomplete hand here reconstructed after P. trossingensis, based on Mallison (2010).

Plateosaurus trossigensis (which includes much of the material formerly termed P. engelhardti) was extremely variable in its growth, and both the specimens depicted here are actually adults. The smaller silhouette is scaled to a femoral length of 48 cm (1.57 ft), corresponding to a total length of 4.8 m (16 ft), extrapolated for an uncatalogued specimen at MSFM termed "scapula 1" by Klein & Sander (2007). The larger silhouette is scaled to the 99 cm (39 in) long femur of an uncatalogued specimen in IFG (termed "femur 13" by Klein & Sander (2007)) resulting in an individual with a total length of nearly 10 m (33 ft). The postcrania of the silhouettes are based on the digital model Plateosaurus skeleton of Mallison (2010), created from scans of GPIT-PV-30784 (formerly GPIT 1) and GPIT-PV-30785 (formerly GPIT 2), while the skulls are based primarily on MSF 11.4 and NAAG_00011238 (Lallensack et. al., 2021).

References

• Mallison, H. (2010). "The digital Plateosaurus II: An assessment of the range of motion of the limbs and vertebral column and of previous reconstructions using a digital skeletal mount". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 55 (3): 433–458.
• Yates, Adam M. (2003). "The species taxonomy of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Löwenstein Formation (Norian, Late Triassic) of Germany". Palaeontology 46 (2): 317-337.
• Lallensack, J. N.; Teschner, E. M.; Pabst, B.; Sander, P. M. (2021). "New skulls of the basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis from Frick, Switzerland: Is there more than one species?". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 66 (1): 1–28.
• Klein, N.; Sander, P. M. (2007). "Bone histology and growth of the prosauropod dinosaur Plateosaurus engelhardti von Meyer, 1837 from the Norian bonebeds of Trossingen (Germany) and Frick (Switzerland)". Special Papers in Palaeontology 77 (169-206).