Dino card No. 0430 of 2,027

Coahuilasaurus

Say it: ko-WAH-wee-luh-SORE-us

Name means: “Coahuila lizard of the Lipani people”1

Ate: PlantsDuck-billsLate Cretaceous

Coahuilasaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived in what is now Mexico. It had a big, flat snout like a duck and used its hundreds of teeth to grind up tough plants.1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Coahuila, Mexico1 3

Food

Plants3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Coahuilasaurus is known from only a partial skull, including the front of the snout and lower jaw.1

It lived about 72.5 million years ago, during the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous Period.1

This dinosaur was a kritosaurin, a group of duck-billed dinosaurs that includes Gryposaurus and Kritosaurus.1

Coahuilasaurus had a strongly downturned lower jaw and massive bumps (denticles) on the roof of its mouth.1

It was one of the southernmost duck-billed dinosaurs known from Laramidia, the western landmass of North America during the Cretaceous.1

Coahuilasaurus was originally mistaken for Kritosaurus navajovius, but scientists now think it is a distinct species.1

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

?How big was Coahuilasaurus?

Coahuilasaurus was a large duck-billed dinosaur, about 8 to 9 metres (26 to 30 feet) long and weighed over 4 metric tons (4.4 short tons).2

?What did Coahuilasaurus eat?

It ate tough, fibrous plants like palms, using its hundreds of teeth and special mouth bumps to grind them up.1

?When did Coahuilasaurus live?

It lived about 72.5 million years ago, during the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous Period.1

?Was Coahuilasaurus a dinosaur?

Yes, Coahuilasaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur, a type of ornithopod dinosaur.2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Coahuilasaurus
Named by: Longrich et al. 20243
Group: Duck-bills
Family / clade: Hadrosauridae3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia > Hadrosauridae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Cerro del Pueblo3
Countries: Mexico3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Coahuilasaurus was named in 2024 by Nick Longrich and colleagues based on a partial skull found in the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila, Mexico.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure how big Coahuilasaurus was, because only a partial skull has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Coahuilasaurus lipani, a New Kritosaurin Hadrosaurid from the Upper Campanian Cerro Del Pueblo Formation, Northern Mexico (mdpi.com)
Coahuilasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Coahuilasaurus 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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