Its name meaning is not entirely clear since the original description contains no information, various authors have offered different interpretations and 'broad lizard' is the most widely accepted. Remains found in North America and Greenland have also been attributed to Plateosaurus, but this is in doubt.

That thing looks so realistic, says a young voice. The Brachiosaurus lowers its long neck, creased with wrinkles, and briefly surveys the human crowd staring back at it. Mother and baby 'Tyrannosaurus rexes.' Photo by Julie Leibach. Many of the fossils know were found in Germany but has also been found in France, Switzerland and Norway. The puppets in the live stage production Walking With Dinosaurs evoke a convincing dino-ness. Plateosaurus was named in 1837, several years before the creation of the Dinosauria clade.

This family of dinosaurs lived during the Triassic and early Jurassic periods and were ancestors to the sauropod family, which also evolved in the Triassic. Plateosaurus is one of the most famous and well know of the prosauropods. However, unlike Sauropods, Plateosaurus was an obligate biped. Plateosaurus is closely related to more advanced Sauropodomorphs including Sauropods themselves, and shares some common features with them, including a long neck and herbivorous diet.

Plateosaurus walking with dinosaurs