Euparkeria capensis

Euparkeria capensis Temporal range: Middle Triassic
Euparkeria cast, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris
Scientific classification
Missing taxonomy template (fix):	Euparkeria capensis
Type species
†Euparkeria capensis Broom, 1913
Synonyms
Browniella africana Broom, 1913

Euparkeria ( /juːˌpɑrkəˈriːə/; meaning "Parker's good animal", named in honor of W.K. Parker) is an extinct genus of archosauriform from the Middle Triassic of South Africa. It was a small reptile that lived between 245-230 million years ago, and was close to the ancestry of Archosauria, the group that includes dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and modern birds and crocodilians. Euparkeria had hind limbs that were slightly longer than its forelimbs, which has been taken as evidence that it may have been able to rear up on its hind legs as a facultative biped. Although Euparkeria is close to the ancestry of fully bipedal archosaurs such as early dinosaurs, it probably developed bipedalism independently. Euparkeria was not as well adapted to bipedal locomotion as dinosaurs and its normal movement was probably more analogous to a crocodilian high walk.

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This article is part of Project Reptilia, a All Birds project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each reptile, including made-up species.