Staurikosaurus pricei Colbert, 1970

Figures 1–32

Holotype. Incomplete skeleton (MCZ 1669, Figs 1–32), housed in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, comprising: both mandibular rami with fragments of teeth in situ; six cervical, 15 dorsal, three sacral, and 34 caudal vertebrae; rib fragments; distal left scapula; ilia, ischia, and pubes; femora, tibiae, and fibulae; several unidentified fragments. A cast (MN 6104-V) is housed at the Museu Nacional/ UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Type locality. An outcrop of the Alemoa Member, Santa Maria Formation (Carnian), locality Sanga Grande, city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Revised diagnosis. Saurischian dinosaur distinguished by the following autapomorphies: 1) craniomedial region of the distal pubis is distinctly beveled (Novas 1993; Figs 22–23); 2) femoral cranial trochanter reduced in size (Fig. 27); 3) distal end of tibia is subcircular in distal view (modified from Rauhut 2003; Fig. 28 g); 4) dorsoventrally oriented sulcus present on the medial surface of the proximal third of fibula (Fig. 30 c–d).

Comments. Rauhut (2003) proposed two additional autapomorphies for S. pricei: postacetabular process of ilium abbreviated and caudally straight; pubic boot confluent with pubic shafts caudally. These proposed autapomorphies are problematic because the postacetabular iliac process is also short in several primitive dinosaurs, including H. ischigualastensis; moreover, in S. pricei the process is rounded rather than straight caudally. The configuration of the pubic boot identified as autapomorphic by Rauhut (2003) is also present in H. ischigualastensis (Langer & Benton 2006) .