Chromogisaurus is a sauropodomorph which existed in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 during the late Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

 period.

Chromogisaurus was first named by Martín Daniel Ezcurra in 2010, and the type species is Chromogisaurus novasi. The generic name is derived from Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 chroma, "colour", and gè, "earth", a reference to the Valle Pintado, the "Painted Valley". The specific name honours Fernando Emilio Novas

Fernando Novas

Fernando Emilio Novas is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural History Argentine Museum in Buenos Aires...

.

The holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

, PVSJ 846, has been found in a layer of the Ischigualasto Formation dating from the Carnian

Carnian

The Carnian is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic series . It lasted from about 228.7 till 216.5 million years ago . The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by the Norian...

. This makes Chromogisaurus one of the oldest known dinosaurs. The specimen consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It includes elements of the front and hind limbs; the pelvis and two caudal vertebrae.

Chromogisaurus was a herbivore and about two metres long. According to Ezcurra it was optionally quadrupedal.

A cladistic analysis by Ezcurra indicated Chromogisaurus was a member of a clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 of basal Sauropodomorpha

Sauropodomorpha

Sauropodomorpha is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs which includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had long necks and tails, were quadrupedal, and became the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The...

, the Guaibasauridae

Guaibasauridae

Guaibasauridae is a family of primitive saurischian dinosaurs, known from fossil remains of late Triassic period formations in Brazil and Argentina....

, together with Guaibasaurus

Guaibasaurus

Guaibasaurus is an extinct genus of basal dinosaur known from the Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil.-Discovery:Guaibasaurus was originally named on the basis of the holotype, MCN PV2355, a well-preserved partial postcranial skeleton and the paratype, MCN PV2356, an...

, Agnosphitys

Agnosphitys

Agnosphitys is a disputed genus of dinosaur. It contains only one species, the type species A. cromhallensis. Its remains include an ilium, maxilla, astragalus and humerus, which date variously from the Norian and Rhaetian stages of the Late Triassic...

, Panphagia

Panphagia

Panphagia is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur described in 2009. It lived 231 million years ago, during the late Ladinian age of the mid Triassic period , in what is now northwestern Argentina...

and Saturnalia

Saturnalia (dinosaur)

Saturnalia is an extinct genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur known from the Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil.-Discovery:Saturnalia was originally named on the basis of three partial skeletons...

. Within Guaibasauridae it forms a smaller clade with its sister taxon Saturnalia, the Saturnaliinae.