Thescelosaurus

Say it: THESS-el-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “marvellous lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

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

Lived

94 to 66 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

western North America, including Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alberta, and Saskatchewan1

Food

Plants1

Length

3 to 4 m1

Weight

200 kg to 300 kg1

Artist's life restoration of Thescelosaurus — How Thescelosaurus may have looked, by Leandra Walters, Phil Senter, James H. Robins. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

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

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 to 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.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@dinowiki.app and we will fix it.