Prosauropoda

Before the Prosauropods, the largest any other Dinosaurs reached, was a a mere 5 metres – as in the case of the slender Herrerasaurus. However, an good example of a Prosauropod, Plateosaurus, grew to over 10 metres. In both cases the majority of the animal’s length is made up of the tails. But whereas the Herrerasaurus probably weighed less than 350 Kilograms in total, the Plateosaurus may have exceeded a weight of over 4 tonnes. This is clearly a bulky type of Dinosaur, and the Prosauropod Family evolved various species, one – despite the enormity of it’s big cousin – grew to only 3 metres and was probably just like a Kangaroo in life. The success of the Prosauropods in the Late Triassic Period, led them to develop into an even larger suborder of the Dinosaur Dynasty – the mighty Sauropods of the Mesozoic. The size of the biggest Prosauropods, being far greater than that any of the Dicynodont Family – the hippo-like of still quite large mammal-like reptiles of a time long before Dinosaurs – allowed them to forage vegetations at levels that no other creature had ever been capable of until they evolved. At last, the trees had an active consumer, beasts well able to smash through forests in search of fresh growth. These animals, were the elephants of the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Periods.