Jaklapallisaurus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

 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...

n 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...

. It is a plateosaurid

Plateosauridae

Plateosauridae is a family of plateosaurian sauropodomorphs. Plateosaurids were early sauropodomorph dinosaurs which existed in Asia, Europe and South America during the Late Triassic period. Although several dinosaurs have been classified as plateosaurids over the years, a 2007 study by Adam M....

 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...

 period (late Norian

Norian

The Norian is a division of the Triassic geological period. It has the rank of an age or stage . The Norian lasted from 216.5 ± 2.0 to 203.6 ± 1.5 million years ago. It was preceded by the Carnian and succeeded by the Rhaetian.-Stratigraphic definitions:The Norian was named after the Noric Alps in...

 to earliest Rhaetian

Rhaetian

The Rhaetian is in geochronology the latest age of the Triassic period or in chronostratigraphy the uppermost stage of the Triassic system. It lasted from 203.6 ± 1.5 to 199.6 ± 0.6 million years ago...

) in what is now Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, central India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is known from the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 ISI R274, postcrania

Postcrania

Postcrania[p] in zoology and vertebrate paleontology refers to all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g...

l material which was collected from the Upper Maleri Formation

Upper Maleri Formation

The Upper Maleri Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is one of the formations of the Pranhita–Godavari Basin. It is of late Norian and possibly earliest Rhaetian ages , and is notable for its fossils of early dinosaurs.-Vertebrate fauna:Angistorhinus sp., cf...

 (late Norian–earliest Rhaetian) of the Pranhita–Godavari Basin and from the referred material ISI R279, partially complete right femur

Femur

The femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...

 which was collected from the Lower Dharmaram Formation

Lower Dharmaram Formation

The Lower Dharmaram Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is one of the formations of the Pranhita–Godavari Basin. It is of latest Norian and Rhaetian ages , and is notable for its fossils of early dinosaurs.-Vertebrate fauna:cf. Paratypothorax, cf...

 (latest Norian–Rhaetian). It was first named by Fernando E. Novas, Martin D. Ezcurra, Sankar Chatterjee

Sankar Chatterjee

Sankar Chatterjee is a paleontologist, and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Calcutta in 1970 and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian...

 and T. S. Kutty in 2011

2011 in paleontology

-Lobopods:-Arachnids:-Insects:-Newly named jawless vertebrates:-Newly named acanthodian:-Newly named cartilaginous fishes:-Newly named bony fishes:-Newly named lepospondyls:-Newly named temnospondyls:-Newly named lissamphibians:...

 and the type species is Jaklapallisaurus asymmetrica. The generic name is derived from the Indian town of Jaklapalli which is close to the type locality. The specific name refers to the highly asymmetrical astragalus of this species in distal view. A cladistic analysis by Novas et al. found that all valid plateosaurid species form a large polytomy

Polytomy

A polytomy , meaning many temporal based branches, is a section of a phylogeny in which the evolutionary relationships can not be fully resolved to dichotomies. In a phylogenetic tree, a polytomy is represented as a node which has more than two immediate descending branches...

. Jaklapallisaurus was found along with the basal sauropodomorph Nambalia

Nambalia

Nambalia is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Late Triassic period in what is now Andhra Pradesh, central India...

, a guaibasaurid, and two basal dinosauriforms

Dinosauriformes

Dinosauriformes is a clade of archosaurian reptiles that include the dinosaurs and their most immediate relatives. All dinosauriformes are distinguished by several features, such as shortened forelimbs, and an at least partially perforated acetabulum, the hole in the hip socket traditionally used...

.