Dinosaur Home A-Z Dinosaurs List Ornithopods Dinosaur

Ornithopods

Thescelosaurus:
Thescelosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in forests during the late Cretaceous period, about 77 to 65 million years ago.A Thescelosaurus' fossilized four-chambered heart was recently found near Buffalo, South Dakota, USA. A CAT scan revealed a powerful, advanced heart that seems to indicate that Thescelosaurus was an active, warm-blooded animal.
The name Thescelosaurus means "Marvelous Lizard"; it was named by the paleontologist Charles W. Gilmore in 1913. The type species is T. neglectusThescelosaurus had a small head, a bulky body, a long, pointed tail, and short arms. It was a hypsilophodontid and an ornithischian dinosaur about 10 to 13 feet (3-4 m) long and 3 feet (0.9 m) tall at the hips; it weighed roughly 665 pounds (300 kg). This ornithopod (a Hypsilophodontid) had a small skull, cheek pouches, cheek teeth, and a beak made of horn.

Heterodontosaurus:
Heterodontosaurus was a small, lightly-built dinosaur with three different kinds of teeth (hence its name) and a beak. The sharp, cutting front, upper teeth were used for biting against the horny beak, the cheek teeth were for grinding food, and it also had two pairs of long, canine-like teeth that fit into sockets. It had five-fingered hands with claws, and three-toed feet with claws. Its back legs were longer than its front legs. It had a long, stiff tail.Heterodontosaurus was about the size of a turkey, 50 inches long (1.3 m) and 20 inches tall (50 cm). It weighed about 42 pounds (19 kg).Heterodontosaurus lived in the late Triassic to early Jurassic period, roughly 208 to 200 million years ago. Large predators from that time were: pterosaurs, and crocodilians. Other dinosaurs from South Africa who lived during the lower Jurassic include: Massospondylus, Thecodontosaurus, Lanasaurus, and Lesothosaurus.Heterodontosaurus was an herbivore (plant-eater). It had three different kinds of teeth. These teeth were specialized for biting, grinding, and tearing its food. They may have stored food in cheek pouches.

Lesothosaurus:
Lesothosaurus was a small, early, lightly-built dinosaur. It was an herbivore (plant-eater) and a fast, agile runner. It was small and lizard-like, about 3 feet (1 m) long. It walked on two long legs, had four-toed feet, five-fingered hands, short arms, a long pointed tail, a flexible neck, and a small head. Its head was short and flat with large eyes. It had sharp, pointed front teeth and arrow-like cheek teeth, but its lower jaw ended in toothless bone. Lesothosaurus lived in the late Triassic to the early Jurassic period, roughly 208-200 million years ago. Large predators from that time were: pterosaurs, and crocodilians. Other dinosaurs from South Africa who lived during the lower Jurassic include: Massospondylus, Thecodontosaurus, Lanasaurus, and Heterodontosaurus.Lesothosaurus was an herbivore (plant-eater). It had sharp teeth that fit together to grind up the tough plant fibers it ate.Lesothosaurus lived on hot, dry plains in what is now South Africa.

Xiaosaurus:
Xiaosaurus was a small, lightly-built dinosaur. It was an herbivore (a plant-eater) and a fast, agile runner. It was small and lizard-like, about 5 feet (1.5 m) long. It walked on two long legs, had four-toed feet, five-fingered hands, short arms, a long, stiff, pointed tail, a flexible neck, and a small head with large eyes. It had leaf-shaped cheek teeth.Xiaosaurus lived during the middle Jurassic period, about 169-163 million years ago.Xiaosaurus was an herbivore (plant-eater) that ate low-lying plants.

Hadrosaurs:
Hadrosaurids (meaning "bulky lizards") were the family of duck-billed, herbivorous dinosaurs. They were the most common dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs ranged in size from 10 to 40 feet (3 to 12 m) long. They had horny, toothless beaks and hundreds of cheek teeth in the sides of their jaws. The duck-billed dinosaurs had the most teeth; they had up to about 960 cheek teeth.
Hadrosaurs had a stiff tail that was probably used for balance. They had hoof-like nails on their feet, and bumpy skin. They ran on two legs, holding their tail and head in a horizontal position. They may have walked on all four legs while grazing. Hadrosaurs probably lived near bodies of water, migrating to high ground to lay eggs. It used to be thought that they had webbed hands, but this was an artifact of the fossilization process.

Hadrosaurs are closely related to the Iguanodontids, and are probably their descendants. Hadrosaurs were Ornithischians (the order of bird-hipped dinosaurs) and Ornithopods ("bird-footed" herbivores with hoof-like feet). Hadrosaurs are divided into two groups, the Hadrodsaurinae (non-crested hadrosaurs) and the Lambeosaurinae (hadrosaurs that had skull crests that connected with their nasal passages).Hadrosaurs lived during the late Cretaceous period. Their fossils have been found in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Edmontosaurus:
Edmontosaurus was a large, plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period. It had short arms, a long, pointed tail, three-toed, hoofed feet, and mitten-like hands. Its head was flat and sloping with a wide, toothless beak, cheek pouches, and hundreds of closely-packed cheek teeth that ground up its food. It was about 42 feet (13 m) long and may have weighed up to 3.5 tons. It was a biped (it walked on two legs) that could also walk on four legs, perhaps to graze low-lying plants. Edmontosaurus was a slow-moving dinosaur with few defenses, but may have had keen senses (eyesight, hearing, and smell) to help it avoid predators in its swampy habitat.

Edmontosaurus had leathery skin (as determined from two mummified Edmontosaurus fossils found in Wyoming). It may have had loose skin around its nose area - some paleontologists think that it may have been able to blow up this skin like a balloon, perhaps for mating rituals or intra-species rivalry. It had a series of bumps (tubercles) running along its neck, back, and tail.Edmontosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 73 to 65 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic Era. It went extinct during the huge K-T mass extinction. T. rex was one of its contemporaries, and may have preyed upon Edmontosaurus. Edmontosaurus was an herbivore, a plant eater. Fossilized conifer needles have been found in Edmontosaurus' stomach. It ate conifer needles, twigs, seeds, and other plant material with its tough beak. It had no teeth in its beak, but had hundreds of cheek teeth used for grinding up tough plant material.

Maiasaura:
Maiasaura was a large, plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur. Maiasaura was the first dinosaur that was found alongside its young, eggs, and nests. This suggests that Maiasaura nurtured its young. Maiasaura was a duck-billed dinosaur with a flat skull and small crests in front of the eyes. This plant-eater had a toothless beak, cheek pouches, and many self-sharpening cheek teeth; hard enamel was found on both the outer surface of the upper teeth and the inner surface of the lower teeth. The hands each had four fingers and the feet had hoof-like claws.Maiasauras grew to be about 30 feet long (9 m), 6-8 feet tall (2-2.5 m), weighing roughly 3-4 tons. Newly hatched Maiasaura babies were about 1 foot (30 cm) long. Maiasaura lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 80 to 65 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic, the Age of Reptiles. It was among the last of the dinosaur species to evolve before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction 65 million years ago. Among the contemporaries of Maiasaura were Velociraptor, Albertosaurus and Troodon (carnivores that probably preyed upon Maiasauras), Tyrannosaurus rex (a larger version of Albertosaurus), Ankylosaurus (an armored herbivore), Parasaurolophus, Corythosaurus (a crested dinosaur), and Dryptosaurus (a meat-eating dinosaur). Maiasaura was an herbivore, a plant eater. An adult would need to eat about 200 pounds of leaves, berries and seeds per day.

Lambeosaurus:
Lambeosaurus was a crested, duck-billed dinosaur. Its forward-leaning, hollow, bony crest was as big or bigger than the rest of its skull and may have been used to produce sounds, enhance its sense of smell, and/or used in courtship displays. Lambeosaurus' nostrils went up through the crest. Its snout was narrow and ended in a beak that was wide and blunt. Males may have had larger crests than females. Lambeosaurus had pebbly-textured skin and may have had webbed fingers. Its sight and hearing were keen, but it had no natural defenses.Lambeosaurus grew to be about 30-50 feet long (9-15 m), weighing 5.6 tons. It is the largest-known duck-bill dinosaur.Lambeosaurus lived during the Cretaceous period, about 83 to 65 million years ago, at the end of the Mesozoic, the Age of Reptiles. A huge, mass extinction killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago Among the contemporaries of Lambeosaurus in the late Cretaceous (in North America) were Albertosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Parasaurolophus, Corythosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Kritosaurus, T. rex, Triceratops, and Pachyrhinosaurus.Lambeosaurus was a herding animal that may have migrated from shorelines to higher ground to reproduce.Lambeosaurus was an herbivore, eating pine needles, the leaves of flowering trees, and twigs.

BACK