Prolacertiformes were an order of archosauromorph

Archosauromorpha

Archosauromorpha is an infraclass of diapsid reptiles that first appeared during the late Permian and became more common during the Triassic. Included in this infraclass are the groups Rhynchosauria, Trilophosauridae, Prolacertiformes, Archosauriformes, and, tentatively, Choristodera...

 reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s that lived during the Permian

Permian

The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...

 and Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

 Periods. Many species seem to have been adapted for an arboreal lifestyle, including the "delta-winged glider" Sharovipteryx

Sharovipteryx

Sharovipteryx , was an early gliding reptile, from the middle-late Triassic period . Fossils have been found from the Madygen Formation of Kyrgyzstan along with the unusual reptile Longisquama...

, while others, such as Tanystropheus

Tanystropheus

Tanystropheus , was a 6 metre long reptile that dated from the Middle Triassic period. It is recognisable by its extremely elongated neck, which measured 3 metres long - longer than its body and tail combined. Despite this length, it had only ten neck vertebrae, each quite long...

, had extremely long, stiffened necks (possibly used to catch fish), and may have been at least partly aquatic.

Other enigmatic reptile groups have sometimes been classified as belonging to the Prolacertiformes, including the drepanosaurids

Drepanosauridae

Drepanosaurs are a group of strange reptiles that lived during the Carnian stage of the late Triassic Period, between 220 and 216 million years ago. The various species of drepanosaurid were characterized by odd specialized grasping limbs and often prehensile tails, adaptions for arboreal , and/or...

, Longisquama

Longisquama

Longisquama insignis is an extinct lizard-like reptile known only from one poorly preserved and incomplete fossil. It lived during the middle or late Triassic Period, 230-225 million years ago, in what is now Kyrgyzstan...

, and the pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

s. Senter (2004) re-assigns the bizarre, arboreal drepanosaurids and Longisquama

Longisquama

Longisquama insignis is an extinct lizard-like reptile known only from one poorly preserved and incomplete fossil. It lived during the middle or late Triassic Period, 230-225 million years ago, in what is now Kyrgyzstan...

to a group of more primitive diapsid

Diapsid

Diapsids are a group of reptiles that developed two holes in each side of their skulls, about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous period. Living diapsids are extremely diverse, and include all crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara...

s called Avicephala

Avicephala

thumb|right|Artist's reconstruction of [[Coelurosauravus]]Avicephala is a possibly polyphyletic and therefore disused clade of diapsid reptiles that lived during the Late Permian and Triassic periods...

.

Classification

• Order Prolacertiformes
  • Gwyneddosaurus
    Gwyneddosaurus
    Gwyneddosaurus is an extinct genus of aquatic tanystropheid reptile. The type species, G. erici was described in 1945 by Wilhelm Bock, who identified it as a coelurosaurian dinosaur related to Podokesaurus...
    
    
  • Family Protorosauridae
    Protorosaurus
    Protorosaurus , a lizard-like reptile of the order Prolacertiformes, is the earliest known archosauromorph. It lived during the Late Permian period in Germany. In 1914, a new ceratopsian dinosaur found by Lawrence Lambe was again given the name Protorosaurus...
    
    
    • Malerisaurus
      Malerisaurus
      Malerisaurus is an extinct genus of prolacertiform archosauromorph known from Andhra Pradesh of India and Texas of the USA.-Description:...
      
      
    • Protorosaurus
      Protorosaurus
      Protorosaurus , a lizard-like reptile of the order Prolacertiformes, is the earliest known archosauromorph. It lived during the Late Permian period in Germany. In 1914, a new ceratopsian dinosaur found by Lawrence Lambe was again given the name Protorosaurus...
      
      
    • Czatkowiella
      Czatkowiella
      Czatkowiella is an extinct genus of long-necked archosauromorph known from Early Triassic rocks of Czatkowice 1, Poland. It was first named by Magdalena Borsuk−Białynicka and Susan E. Evans in 2009 and the type species is Czatkowiella harae.- Phylogeny :Cladogram after Borsuk−Białynicka & Evans ....
      
      
  • Family Prolacertidae
    • Boreopricea
    • Cosesaurus
      Cosesaurus
      Cosesaurus is a genus of prolacertiform archosauromorph reptile. It is known from a single, hand-sized fossil from the middle Triassic period of Spain...
      
      Ellenberger & Villalta, 1974
    • Jesairosaurus
      Jesairosaurus
      Jesairosaurus is an extinct genus of prolacertiform archosauromorph known from Illizi Province of Algeria.-Description:Jesairosaurus is known from the holotype ZAR 6, articulated and three-dimensionally preserved skull and pectoral girdle and from nine paratypes including ZAR 7-8, two...
      
      
    • Kadimakara
    • Langobardisaurus
      Langobardisaurus
      Langobardisaurus is an extinct genus of prolacertiform reptile....
      
      
    • Macrocnemus
      Macrocnemus
      Macrocnemus is an extinct genus of prolacertiform reptile from the Middle Triassic of Europe. Two species have been named, the type species M. bassanii and the species M. fuyuanensis....
      
      
    • Malutinisuchus
      Malutinisuchus
      Malutinisuchus is an extinct genus of prolacertid prolacertiform. The genus was named in 1986 with the description of the type species M. gratus. Malutinisuchus is known from Ladinian-age Middle Triassic deposits in the Bukobay and Rassypnaya localities in Orenburg Oblast, Russia. In Russia,...
      
      
    • Pamelaria
    • Prolacerta
    • Vritramimosaurus
      Vritramimosaurus
      Vritramimosaurus is an extinct genus of giant prolacertid prolacertiform. Compared to other members of the family Prolacertidae, Vritramimosaurus was large and highly specialized. Fossils have been found from Early Triassic deposits of the Rassypnaya locality in Orenburg Oblast, Russia...
      
      
  • Family Sharovipterygidae
    Sharovipteryx
    Sharovipteryx , was an early gliding reptile, from the middle-late Triassic period . Fossils have been found from the Madygen Formation of Kyrgyzstan along with the unusual reptile Longisquama...
    
    
    • Sharovipteryx
      Sharovipteryx
      Sharovipteryx , was an early gliding reptile, from the middle-late Triassic period . Fossils have been found from the Madygen Formation of Kyrgyzstan along with the unusual reptile Longisquama...
      
      
  • Family Tanystropheidae
    • Augustaburiania
      Augustaburiania
      Augustaburiania is an extinct genus of tanystropheid archosauromorph which lived during the lower Triassic of what is now Eastern Europe. It is recovered from the Don River Basin in western Russia. It was named by Sennikov in 2011 and the type species is Augustaburiania vatagini. Augustaburiania is...
      
      
    • Dinocephalosaurus
    • Protanystropheus
      Protanystropheus
      Protanystropheus is an extinct genus of tanystropheid archosauromorph which lived during the Triassic of what is now central and western Europe. It was named by Sennikov in 2011 and the type species is Protanystropheus antiquus. P. antiquus was previously referred to as Tanystropheus antiquus, and...
      
      
    • Tanystropheus
      Tanystropheus
      Tanystropheus , was a 6 metre long reptile that dated from the Middle Triassic period. It is recognisable by its extremely elongated neck, which measured 3 metres long - longer than its body and tail combined. Despite this length, it had only ten neck vertebrae, each quite long...
      
      
    • Tanytrachelos