Thescelosaurus
Thescelosaurus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived near the end of the age of dinosaurs. It walked on two legs, had a long tail that helped it balance, and a toothless beak at the front of its snout. It was one of the last non-bird dinosaurs before they all went extinct 66 million years ago.1
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Fun facts
Thescelosaurus had more teeth than its relatives, and the teeth were different shapes for different jobs.1
Its tail made up half its body length and was stiffened by rod-like tendons.1
Scientists think Thescelosaurus might have dug burrows, because it had a good sense of smell but poor hearing, like modern burrowing animals.1
A fossil of Thescelosaurus was thought to have a preserved heart in 2000, but later scientists doubted that idea.1
Its brain was small, which might mean it lived in groups of only two or three animals.1
Thescelosaurus had five fingers on its hand and four toes on its foot.1
It was probably not a fast runner, because its thigh bone was longer than its shin bone.1
Most asked questions about Thescelosaurus
?How big was Thescelosaurus?
About 3 to 4 metres (10 to 13 feet) long and weighed 200 to 300 kilograms (440 to 660 pounds).1
?What did Thescelosaurus eat?
It was a plant-eater, or herbivore, that likely picked leaves and other plants with its toothless beak and many teeth.1
?Did Thescelosaurus have feathers?
No one knows for sure. No feather impressions have been found on any Thescelosaurus fossil, but some other ornithischian dinosaurs had simple feathers.1
?Could Thescelosaurus swim?
Probably not. Its body was built for walking on land, with a long tail for balance and strong legs, not for swimming.1
?Was Thescelosaurus bigger than T. rex?
No, it was much smaller. Thescelosaurus was about 3 to 4 metres long, while T. rex could be over 12 metres long.1
?When did Thescelosaurus go extinct?
It died out about 66 million years ago, along with all other non-bird dinosaurs, in the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people thought Thescelosaurus had a fossilized heart.
Truth: Scientists now doubt that the object found inside a specimen was a heart.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Thescelosaurus
- Named by
- Gilmore 19132
- Group
- Beaked plant-eaters
- Family / clade
- Thescelosauridae2
- Classification
- Ornithischia2
- Age of the rocks
- 94 to 66 million years (Turonian / Maastrichtian)2
- Rock formations
- Hell Creek, Lance, Oldman2
- Countries
- USA, Canada2
- Fossil records
- 55 in the Paleobiology Database2
- Also known as
- Bugenasaura (older names now counted as the same animal)2
- Discovery
- The first skeleton was found in 1891 by John Bell Hatcher in Wyoming, but the dinosaur was named Thescelosaurus by Charles W. Gilmore in 1913.1
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether some species, like Thescelosaurus garbanii, belong in their own separate genus.1
Where the facts come from
- Thescelosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Thescelosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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