Callovosaurus

Say it: kal-oh-voh-SORE-us

Name means: “Callovian lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersMiddle Jurassic

Callovosaurus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in England during the Middle Jurassic. It walked on two legs and used its beak to nibble on plants. It is one of the earliest known members of the iguanodontian group, which later included bigger dinosaurs like Iguanodon.1

Lived

165 to 162 million years ago3

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Fletton brick pit, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom3 1

Food

Plants1 3

Length

2.5 m1

estimated from a thigh bone 28 cm long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 1.5 bicycles in a rowas long as 14 bananas end to end

How big was Callovosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Callovosaurus is known from just one nearly complete left thigh bone, which is 28 centimetres long.1

It lived about 164 million years ago, during the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic.1

The first fossil was collected by Alfred Nicholson Leeds, a famous fossil collector, from a brick pit near Peterborough.1

Callovosaurus was originally named Camptosaurus leedsi by Richard Lydekker in 1889, but later got its own genus in 1980.1

It lived alongside many other reptiles, including ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and the stegosaurs Loricatosaurus and Lexovisaurus.1

Some scientists think Callovosaurus is the oldest known dryosaurid, but a 2025 study placed it outside that family.1

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

?How big was Callovosaurus?

It was about 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) long, based on its 28-centimetre thigh bone.1 2

?What did Callovosaurus eat?

It ate plants, like other iguanodontian dinosaurs.1

?When did Callovosaurus live?

It lived about 164 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic.1 2

?Where was Callovosaurus found?

Its fossils were found in a brick pit near Peterborough, England.1 2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Callovosaurus
Named by: Galton 19803
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Euiguanodontia3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia3
Age of the rocks: 165 to 162 million years (Callovian)3
Rock formations: Oxford Clay3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossil, a thigh bone, was found by Alfred Nicholson Leeds in the 1800s. Richard Lydekker named it Camptosaurus leedsi in 1889. In 1980, Peter Galton gave it the new genus name Callovosaurus.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Callovosaurus belongs to the dryosaurid family or is a more primitive iguanodontian.1

Where the facts come from

Callovosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
CALLOVOSAURUS - DinoChecker dinosaur archive (dinochecker.com)
Callovosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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