The Anchisauria were a clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 of sauropodomorph dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s which lived during the Late Triassic

Late Triassic

The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age...

 and Early Jurassic

Early Jurassic

The Early Jurassic epoch is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic period...

. The name Anchisauria was first used by Galton and Upchurch in the second edition of The Dinosauria. Galton and Upchurch assigned two families of dinosaurs to the Anchisauria: the Anchisauridae

Anchisauridae

The Anchisauridae were a group of early sauropodomorph dinosaurs first proposed by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1885. The clade consists of Anchisaurus and its nearest relatives. However, it is not clear which other genera are included in the family; many of the dinosaurs once included have since been...

 and the Melanorosauridae

Melanorosauridae

The Melanorosauridae were a family of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. The name Melanorosauridae was first coined by Friedrich von Huene in 1929. Huene assigned several families of dinosaurs to the infraorder Prosauropoda: the Anchisauridae, the...

, of which Anchisaurus

Anchisaurus

Anchisaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph, and was an early herbivorous dinosaur. Until recently it was classed as a member of Prosauropoda. The name comes from the Greek αγχι/agkhi...

and Melanorosaurus

Melanorosaurus

Melanorosaurus , is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period. A herbivore from South Africa, it had a large body and sturdy limbs, suggesting it moved about on all fours...

are the best-known members. The more common prosauropods Plateosaurus

Plateosaurus

Plateosaurus is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 216 to 199 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Europe. Plateosaurus is a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod"...

and Massospondylus

Massospondylus

Massospondylus and ) is a genus of prosauropod dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period . It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains found in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named...

were placed in the sister clade Plateosauria

Plateosauria

Plateosauria is a clade of sauropodomorph dinosaurs which lived during the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. The name Plateosauria was first coined by Gustav Tornier in 1913. The name afterwards fell out of use until the 1980s, when a new generation of paleontologists began using the name...

.

However, recent research indicates that Anchisaurus

Anchisaurus

Anchisaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph, and was an early herbivorous dinosaur. Until recently it was classed as a member of Prosauropoda. The name comes from the Greek αγχι/agkhi...

is closer to sauropods than traditional prosauropods; thus, Anchisauria would also include Sauropoda

Sauropoda

Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an infraorder of saurischian dinosaurs. They had long necks, long tails, small heads , and thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land...

. Yates (2007) classified Yunnanosaurus

Yunnanosaurus

Yunnanosaurus is a genus of prosauropod dinosaur from the Early to Middle Jurassic Period, a position in time that makes it one of the last prosauropods. It is closely related to Lufengosaurus...

and Anchisaurus within the Anchisauria.