Dino card No. 0188 of 2,027

Athenar

Say it: ATH-eh-nar

Name means: “named after the musician Athenar, plus bermani honors paleontologist David S. Berman”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Jurassic

Athenar was a long-necked plant-eater that lived about 150 million years ago. It is known only from a skull and braincase that sat in a museum drawer for decades before scientists realized it was a new dinosaur.1 2

Lived

149 to 145 million years ago4

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Carnegie Quarry, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, USA4 1

Food

Plants4

Length

12 to 15 m3

estimate based on skull scaling from subadult holotype

Weight

5 tonnes to 10 tonnes3

estimate based on volumetric scaling from subadult holotype

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 7 cars

as long as 3 cars parked in a rowas long as 83 bananas end to endas heavy as 1.5 elephantsas heavy as 2000 watermelons

How big was Athenar compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Athenar was a dicraeosaurid, a group of sauropods with shorter necks and smaller bodies than giants like Diplodocus.2

The only known fossil of Athenar is a braincase and partial skull roof, collected in 1913 by Earl Douglass.1

For 65 years the skull was thought to belong to Diplodocus, but in 2025 scientists re-examined it and gave it its own name.1

Athenar lived alongside famous dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Diplodocus in the Morrison Formation.2

The skull of Athenar has a unique 'tooth' in the suture between two bones of the braincase, a feature not seen in any other dicraeosaurid.1

Even though the skull is quite large, the bones were not fully fused, suggesting this animal was still a subadult when it died.1

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

?What did Athenar eat?

Athenar was a plant-eater, like other sauropods. It ate plants that grew in its Late Jurassic environment.2

?How big was Athenar?

Nobody knows for sure, because only its skull has been found. The skull is quite large, but the bones were not fully fused, so it was still a subadult when it died.1 2

?When did Athenar live?

Athenar lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic period.2

?Is Athenar a dinosaur?

Yes, Athenar is a dinosaur. It is a dicraeosaurid sauropod, a type of long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur.2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Athenar
Named by: Whitlock et al. 20254
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Dicraeosauridae4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Diplodocoidea4
Age of the rocks: 149 to 145 million years (Tithonian)4
Rock formations: Morrison4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The fossil was dug up in 1913 by Earl Douglass at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. It was first described in 1978 as a Diplodocus skull, but in 2025 John Whitlock and colleagues named it a new genus, Athenar bermani.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Athenar was, because only its skull has been found. They also debate whether some other skulls from the Morrison Formation belong to dicraeosaurids like Athenar.1

Where the facts come from

Athenar bermani, new dicraeosaurid sauropod (palaeo-electronica.org)
Athenar (en.wikipedia.org)
Athenar bermani | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Athenar 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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