Calvarius

Say it: kal-VAIR-ee-us

Name means: “The name comes from the Serrat del Calvari hill and the Catalan word 'calvari' meaning 'suffering', referring to its closeness to the extinction event.”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Calvarius was a small, speedy plant-eating dinosaur that lived near the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It was one of the last dinosaurs to walk on Earth before the big asteroid hit.2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Masia de Ramón site, near Figuerola d'Orcau in Lleida province, Catalonia, Spain1 2

Food

Plants3 2

Length

up to 2 m2

Estimated from a single foot bone, no more than 2 meters long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to end

How big was Calvarius compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Calvarius is known from just one foot bone, a left metatarsal IV, which was about 15 centimeters long.2

It was probably a fast runner. Its long foot bone and light build suggest it could sprint quickly, unlike most other styracostern dinosaurs.1

Calvarius lived on a large island called Ibero-Armorica, which is now northern Spain and southern France. On islands, animals sometimes evolve to be smaller because food is limited.2

It was one of the last dinosaurs ever. Its fossils were found just 25 meters below the layer that marks the asteroid impact that killed the non-bird dinosaurs.1

The fossil was discovered in 2019 by paleontologists from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the Museu de la Conca Dellà.2

Calvarius is the smallest known styracostern dinosaur. Some of its relatives grew over 10 meters long, but Calvarius was less than 2 meters.2

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

?How big was Calvarius?

Calvarius was no more than 2 metres (6.6 feet) long, making it one of the smallest known styracostern dinosaurs.2

?What did Calvarius eat?

Calvarius was a plant-eater. It was an ornithopod, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs.2

?When did Calvarius live?

Calvarius lived about 66 million years ago, right at the end of the Cretaceous period. It was one of the last dinosaurs before the asteroid hit.2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Calvarius
Named by: Prieto-Márquez and Sellés 20233
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Styracosterna3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia3
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Talarn3
Countries: Spain3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The fossil was found in 2019 at the Masia de Ramón site in Spain by a team from the MCD and ICP. Albert Prieto-Márquez and Albert Sellés named it Calvarius rapidus in 2023.2 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Calvarius was because only one foot bone has been found. They estimate it was less than 2 meters long, but it could have been different.2

Where the facts come from

Evolutionary convergence in a small cursorial styracosternan ornithopod dinosaur from western Europe (dinodata.de)
Calvarius rapidus, the new dinosaur species that almost saw the asteroid falling (icp.cat)
Calvarius 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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