Silesauridae is an extinct
clade of
dinosauriformes, a group of
Triassic reptiles that included early ancestors of the
dinosaurs. The silesaurids were a sister clade to the dinosaurs. The group was named in 2010 by paleontologist Max C. Langer and colleagues from Brazil and Argentina. They defined it as a branch-based clade of all archosaurs closer to
Silesaurus opolensis than to either
Heterodontosaurus tucki or
Marasuchus lilloensis. At the same time, a second group of scientists independently named Silesauridae as a node-based clade consisting of
Lewisuchus,
Silesaurus, their common ancestor and all its descendants. Currently, both definitions encompass the same group of animals. In a later paper, Nesbitt and colleagues noted that the earlier definition by Langer
et al did not include a diagnosis, and so was not sufficient to create a ranked
family-level name according to the
ICZN. Therefore, the family Silesauridae is attributed to Nesbitt
et al. 2010 while the clade Silesauridae is attributed to Langer
et al. 2010.
