Agilisaurus
Agilisaurus was a tiny, speedy plant-eater that darted through the forests of ancient China. It had a beak for snipping plants and long legs for running fast. This little dinosaur is one of the most complete small ornithischian skeletons ever found.2
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at the hips
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Fun facts
Agilisaurus had a lower leg bone (tibia) that was longer than its upper leg bone (femur), which made it an extremely fast runner.2
Its skeleton is one of the most complete small ornithischian skeletons ever found, missing only a few parts of the left forelimb and hind limb.2
The wavy enamel on its teeth was once thought to be unique to hadrosaurs, but Agilisaurus had it too.2
Agilisaurus may have been a burrow dweller because its tail lacked stiffening bony struts.2
Based on its scleral rings (eye bones), scientists think Agilisaurus was active during the day, unlike many larger herbivorous dinosaurs.2
The only known skeleton was discovered in 1984 while workers were building the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, where it now lives.2
Most asked questions about Agilisaurus
?How big was Agilisaurus?
Agilisaurus was about 1.2 to 1.7 metres (3.9 to 5.6 feet) long, 60 centimetres (2.0 feet) tall at the hip, and weighed around 40 kilograms (88 pounds).2
?What did Agilisaurus eat?
Agilisaurus was a plant-eater. It had leaf-shaped teeth for chewing tough plants and a beak to snip off leaves.21
?How fast could Agilisaurus run?
Agilisaurus was an extremely fast runner. Its lower leg bone was longer than its upper leg bone, which helped it sprint on two legs.2
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Agilisaurus was a slow, clumsy plant-eater.
Truth: Actually, its long legs and lightweight skeleton show it was one of the fastest small dinosaurs, able to sprint quickly.2
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Agilisaurus
- Named by
- Peng 19903
- Group
- Beaked plant-eaters
- Family / clade
- Neornithischia3
- Classification
- Ornithischia3
- Age of the rocks
- 171 to 155 million years (Bajocian / Oxfordian)3
- Rock formations
- Shaximiao3
- Countries
- China3
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- Agilisaurus was named by Chinese paleontologist Peng Guangzhou in 1990. The only skeleton was found in 1984 during construction of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Sichuan, China.2
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate exactly where Agilisaurus fits in the dinosaur family tree. It has been placed in several different groups over the years.2
Where the facts come from
- Agilisaurus (nhm.ac.uk)
- Agilisaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Agilisaurus 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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