Dino card No. 0185 of 2,027

Asylosaurus

Say it: uh-SY-loh-SORE-us

Name means: “unharmed or sanctuary lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Triassic

Asylosaurus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in England about 200 million years ago. It walked on two legs and had a long neck, like other early sauropod relatives.1

Lived

206 to 201 million years ago3

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

Durdham Down, Clifton, Bristol, England1

Food

Plants1

Length

2 m1

estimate by Gregory S. Paul

Weight

250 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 8 big dogs

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to endas heavy as 50 watermelons

How big was Asylosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

The bones of Asylosaurus were discovered in 1834, but they were not recognized as a new dinosaur until 2007.1

Its bones were saved from destruction during World War II because they had been taken to Yale University in the USA.1

Asylosaurus had a different upper arm bone (humerus) compared to its relatives Thecodontosaurus and Pantydraco.1

Its hand had a reduced number of finger bones, with a formula of 2 to 3-4 to 2-?1.2

The name Asylosaurus means 'unharmed lizard', because its fossils escaped the bombing of Bristol in 1940.1

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

?How big was Asylosaurus?

About 2 metres long and weighed roughly 250 kilograms.1

?What did Asylosaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater, but it may have also eaten some insects or small animals, since scientists are not sure if it was purely herbivorous or omnivorous.1

?Why is it called Asylosaurus?

The name means 'unharmed lizard' because its fossils were saved from a World War II bombing that destroyed the original Thecodontosaurus bones.1

?When did Asylosaurus live?

It lived during the Late Triassic period, about 200 million years ago.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Asylosaurus is the same as Thecodontosaurus.

Truth: It was first thought to be Thecodontosaurus, but scientists now see it as its own genus because of differences in the upper arm bone.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Asylosaurus
Named by: Galton 20073
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropodomorpha3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha3
Age of the rocks: 206 to 201 million years (Rhaetian)3
Rock formations: Magnesian Conglomerate3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The bones were found in 1834 by quarrymen in Bristol, England. They were described in 1836 as Thecodontosaurus, but Peter Galton named them Asylosaurus in 2007.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if some other bones from the same site belong to Asylosaurus or to another dinosaur.2

Where the facts come from

Asylosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
VOL. 26, N° 2, 2007 (dinochecker.com)
Asylosaurus 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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