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Aardonyx

Say it: AHR-don-iks

Name means: “Earth claw”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Jurassic

Aardonyx was a dinosaur that lived in South Africa about 200 million years ago. It could walk on two legs or sometimes use all four legs, like a bridge between earlier dinosaurs and the giant long-necked sauropods. It ate plants and had leaf-shaped teeth for stripping leaves off branches.2

Lived

201 to 193 million years ago5

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Marc's Quarry on the farm Spion Kop 932, Senekal District, Free State, South Africa1

Food

Plants2

Length

8 m2

Weight

1.5 tonnes2

Height

1.5 m2 3

hip height

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

hip height

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1 cars

as long as 8 dogs nose to tailas long as 44 bananas end to endas heavy as 50 big dogsas heavy as 300 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Aardonyx compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Aardonyx had narrow jaws that lacked fleshy cheeks, which was surprising because scientists thought wide jaws evolved before cheeks were lost.1

The name Aardonyx comes from Afrikaans 'aard' meaning Earth and Greek 'onyx' meaning claw, because many bones had a thick red coating of hematite.1

The only known fossils of Aardonyx are from two young individuals, not one full-grown dinosaur.2

Aardonyx could walk on two legs but also had features that helped it walk on all fours, like a special bump on its arm bone for strong muscles.1

Its foot bones show that the weight-bearing part shifted to the inside of the foot, a trait that later sauropods had.1

AI-made picture of Aardonyx — An AI-made picture of how Aardonyx might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Aardonyx

?How big was Aardonyx?

About 7 metres (23 feet) long. The only known fossils are from two young individuals that were still growing, so adults may have been a bit larger.2

?What did Aardonyx eat?

Aardonyx was a herbivore that ate leaves and other foliage. It had leaf-shaped teeth for stripping vegetation from branches.2

?Could Aardonyx walk on two legs?

Yes, it usually walked on two legs but could also drop to all fours. Its skeleton shows features of both bipedal and quadrupedal movement.2 4

?When did Aardonyx live?

It lived during the Early Jurassic, about 200 to 190 million years ago.2

?Where was Aardonyx found?

Its fossils were discovered in South Africa, in the Elliot Formation.4 2

?Why is Aardonyx important?

It helps show how two-legged dinosaurs evolved into giant four-legged sauropods. It had a mix of features from both groups.2 4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Aardonyx
Named by: Yates et al. 20105
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropodiformes5
Classification: Sauropodomorpha5
Age of the rocks: 201 to 193 million years (Hettangian / Sinemurian)5
Rock formations: Elliot5
Countries: South Africa5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Aardonyx was named in 2009 by scientists Yates, Bonnan, Neveling, Chinsamy and Blackbeard. The fossils were found in South Africa and the species name 'celestae' honors Celeste Yates, who prepared many of the bones.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Aardonyx moved, because it shows a mix of two-legged and four-legged features.1

Where the facts come from

A new transitional sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa and the evolution of sauropod feeding and quadrupedalism (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Aardonyx | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
New African dinosaur was very down to earth | UCT News (news.uct.ac.za)
Aardonyx (en.wikipedia.org)
Aardonyx 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 [email protected] and we will fix it.

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