Evolution of the first dinosaurs and their impact on Laurasia

• Applicant: Dr. Joep Schaeffer
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572340957

The project, “Evolution of the first dinosaurs and their impact on Laurasia,” revolves around understanding the diversity of the first dinosaurs from Laurasia, the northern part of the supercontinent Pangaea, which consisted of North America, Europe, and Asia. Traditionally, dinosaurs were thought to have originated in Gondwana (South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia) around 230 million years ago, but recent findings suggest an origin at low latitudes, with potentially early migration into Laurasia. The first dinosaurs that arrived in Laurasia and thrived there, were the non-sauropodan sauropodomorphs, the early ancestors of the well-known giant long-necked dinosaurs. However, many details about their anatomy, diversity, and evolutionary relationships are still unclear. The diversity in particular has been the subject of controversy for the past century, as in the past, many taxa were erected, and later synonymised, making the diversity in Laurasia seem very low compared to that of Gondwana during the same period. A considerable degree of morphological variation, which is likely greater than can be explained by individual, sexual, or ontogenetic variation alone, is observed among Laurasian Triassic sauropodomorphs, even in assemblages considered to be monospecific. This suggests that the actual diversity was likely much higher than previously thought. For this reason, we hypothesise that the sauropodomorph dinosaurs in Laurasia had already greatly diversified in the Late Triassic, similar to what is seen in Gondwana, rather than only diversifying in the Early Jurassic. To test this, a specimen-level phylogenetic analysis of all Triassic Laurasian sauropodomorphs will be performed. In this analysis, the specimens of Plateosaurus will play a major role. They represent the majority of all Triassic sauropodomorphs from Laurasia, show a lot of variation between specimens, and are almost all currently referred to a single species: Plateosaurus trossingensis. This will be followed by a morphospace analysis to visualize and compare patterns of anatomical variation with phylogenetic findings. Finally, Europe’s oldest known dinosaur, Efraasia minor, which consists of a large assemblage of specimens of vastly different sizes and morphologies, will be examined through an osteological description, as well as a histological study to examine the ontogenetic stage of all specimens and determine whether the group represents one or several species.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Nicole Klein; Professor Dr. Oliver Rauhut