graphics from Professor Paul Eric Olsen's DINOSAURS AND THE HISTORY OF LIFE - GEOLOGY V1001x site

The most primitive suborder, the Prosauropoda, (or Prosauropodomorpha, if one wishes to divide the suborder into two infraorders) are first known from the late Carnian.  They moved into the large plant-eater ecological niche vacated by the dicynodonts and rhynchosaurs when the latter two died out during the latest Carnian/earliest Norian.   Within a few short million years they had grown into very large forms like Plateosaurus, Riojosaurus and Melanorosaurus, which attained lengths of 6 to 10 metres and weights of upto 2 tonnes.  These creatures in turn gave rise to the Vulcanodont sauropoda during the earliest Jurassic (Hettangian or Sinemurian).

Thecodontosauria	Prosauropoda (Plateosauria)
Thecodontosauridae	Anchisauridae	Plateosauridae	Melanorosauridae	Blikanasauridae

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