The purpose of this application, under Article 75.5 of the Code, is to conserve the usage of the name Plateosaurus Meyer, 1837 (Upper Triassic, Germany), known from numerous articulated skeletons, several with complete skulls, from the Norian Plateosaurus bonebeds of Western Europe and Greenland. This was the first non-English, non-avian dinosaur and the second sauropodomorph and Triassic dinosaur to be named. It is proposed to replace the fragmentary and non-diagnostic bones that constitute the type material of Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837, the type species of Plateosaurus Meyer, 1837, with a diagnostic neotype, an almost complete skull and skeleton (SMNS 13200). This specimen has formed the basis for the concept of P. engelhardti (the best represented basal sauropodomorph) and ultimately of Plateosaurus Meyer, 1837. Plateosaurus is the basis for plateosauridae Marsh, 1895 and Plateosauria Tornier, 1913.
Plateosaurus engelhardti Meyer, 1837 (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha): proposed replacement of unidentifiable name-bearing type by a neotype," The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 69(3), 203-212, (1 September 2012). https://doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v69i3.a15