Efraasia

Efraasia was a slender, primitive sauropodomorph that lived in Late Triassic Germany, roughly 214 million years ago. Measuring around five metres from snout to tail, it was significantly lighter and more gracile than the contemporary giant Plateosaurus. For many decades after its discovery in 1907, its fossils were repeatedly misclassified, sometimes as a carnivorous theropod or lumped under other genera, before finally being recognised as a distinct genus in 1973. Efraasia was capable of standing upright on its hind legs to feed from elevated foliage, but its proportionally longer forelimbs suggest it could also walk comfortably on all fours. Its leaf-shaped teeth were well suited for chewing the ferns and conifers common in its semi-arid European habitat.

Historically misidentified as a coelurosaurian theropod and later Plateosaurus, it took decades to recognise its unique identity.

Where and when

Efraasia lived in the Late Triassic, from 215 to 212 million years ago (Norian age). Its remains come from Germany, in the Löwenstein Formation.

The numbers

Length 5.3 m (estimates run from 4 to 6.5 m). Mass about 240 kg. Hip height about 1.5 m. That is 3.1 human-lengths, or 0.47 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, first ma, last ma, hip height.

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