Prolacertidae

Prolacertidae is an extinct family of archosauromorph reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic epoch. It was named in 1935 by the British palaeontologist Francis Rex Parrington to include the species Prolacerta broomi of South Africa and Antarctica.^[1] In 1979 a second species, Kadimakara australiensis, was described from Australia.^[2] Several other genera, such as Macrocnemus, Pamelaria and Prolacertoides, have also been assigned to this family in the past,^[3] but these have been placed elsewhere by later studies, leaving Prolacerta and Kadimakara as the only well-supported members.^[4]

Prolacertids Temporal range: Induan-Olenekian, 252–247 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Illustration of the skull of Prolacerta broomi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Crocopoda
Family:	†Prolacertidae Parrington, 1935
Genera
†Kadimakara †Prolacerta (Type)

The prolacertids were historically placed within the paraphyletic group Prolacertiformes along with other basal, long-necked archosauriforms like Protorosaurus and the tanystropheids. However, more recent research has shown that the prolacertids were only distantly related to other "prolacertiforms", and were instead among the closest relatives of Archosauriformes.^[4]

The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Ezcurra (2016):^[4]

Archosauromorpha	Aenigmastropheus Protorosaurus Jesairosaurus Tanystropheidae Crocopoda Allokotosauria Rhynchosauria Boreopricea Prolacertidae Kadimakara Prolacerta Tasmaniosaurus Archosauriformes