Ampelognathus

Say it: AM-pell-oh-nay-thuss KOH-hen-ee

Name means: “Grapevine jaw”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Ampelognathus was a tiny, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in Texas about 96 million years ago. It was only about as long as a six-foot person and weighed as much as a medium-sized dog. This little dinosaur is known from just a single jawbone found near Grapevine Lake.1

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Grapevine Lake emergency spillway, Tarrant County, Texas, USA2

Food

Plants3

Length

up to 1.8 m1

estimated, less than 6 feet long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 10 bananas end to end

How big was Ampelognathus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Ampelognathus is the first small-bodied, plant-eating ornithopod dinosaur ever found in the Lewisville Formation of Texas.2

The only fossil known from Ampelognathus is a two-inch-long piece of its lower left jawbone.1

Its jaw has a twist: the back teeth point upward and inward instead of straight up, which is unique among its relatives.2

When Ampelognathus lived, a shallow sea split North America into two landmasses, and Texas was on the eastern shore with a hot, humid climate.1

The dinosaur was named after Grapevine Lake, where it was found, and honors Murray Cohen, the fossil enthusiast who discovered the jawbone.2

Ampelognathus is only the fourth named dinosaur from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, joining armored Pawpawsaurus and large Protohadros.1

AI-made picture of Ampelognathus — An AI-made picture of how Ampelognathus 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 Ampelognathus

?How big was Ampelognathus?

It was small, likely less than 1.8 metres long and weighed no more than a medium sized dog.1

?What did Ampelognathus eat?

It was a plant-eating dinosaur, a herbivore that lived on the ground.3

?When did Ampelognathus live?

It lived about 96 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.1

?Where was Ampelognathus found?

Its jawbone was found near Grapevine Lake in Grapevine, Texas, in the Lewisville Formation.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Ampelognathus
Named by: Tykoski et al. 20233
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Rhabdodontomorpha3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia3
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)3
Rock formations: Lewisville3
Countries: USA3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The fossil was found by Murray Cohen, a volunteer fossil enthusiast, in the Grapevine Lake emergency spillway in Texas. It was named and described by paleontologists Ron Tykoski, Dori Contreras, and Christopher Noto in 2023.2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Ampelognathus grew, because only a jawbone has been found so far.1

Where the facts come from

PRESS RELEASE (perot-m.imgix.net)
The first small-bodied ornithopod dinosaur from the Lewisville Formation (middle Cenomanian) of Texa (tandfonline.com)
Ampelognathus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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