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Diodorus

Say it: dye-oh-DOR-us
Name means: “gift of Dionysus, after the mythical king of North Africa”1
Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Triassic

Diodorus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur relative that lived about 230 million years ago in what is now Morocco. It had a beak-like front on its lower jaw and leaf-shaped teeth for munching plants. Scientists think it could walk on all fours or run on its hind legs.23

Lived
237 to 206 million years ago3
Late Triassic
Fossils found in
Argana Basin, 2.9 km east of Imziln, Morocco32
Food
Plants32
Length
up to 2.3 m2
estimate

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

Diodorus about 2.3 m longA dog about 1 mA bicycle about 1.8 mA car about 4.5 m
as long as 5 house cats nose to tailas long as 13 bananas end to end

How big was Diodorus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Diodorus is one of the closest relatives of true dinosaurs, belonging to a group called Silesauridae.3

2

Its name comes from a mythical king of North Africa, and the species name 'scytobrachion' means 'leathery arm'.1

3

Diodorus had forward-tilted teeth that got smaller toward the front of its jaw, which is unusual.2

4

A ridge on the side of its lower jaw ran parallel to the tooth sockets, helping scientists tell it apart from other silesaurids.2

5

Its femur (thigh bone) was only 92 mm (3.6 in) long, showing it was a small animal.2

6

Diodorus lived alongside phytosaurs, prolacertiforms, fish, and temnospondyls in a Late Triassic ecosystem.1

7

It is the first silesaurid dinosaur relative ever found in northern Africa.3

AI-madeAI-made picture of Diodorus
An AI-made picture of how Diodorus 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.

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Scientific name
Diodorus
Named by
Kammerer et al. 20123
Group
Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade
Silesauridae3
Classification
Ornithischia3
Age of the rocks
237 to 206 million years (Carnian / Norian)3
Rock formations
Timezgadiouine3
Countries
Morocco3
Fossil records
1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery
Diodorus was named in 2012 by Christian Kammerer, Sterling Nesbitt, and Neil Shubin. The first fossils were found by a Harvard University team in a quarry in Morocco, with support from the National Geographic Society.32
Still debated
Scientists are not sure whether Diodorus was strictly a plant-eater or also ate insects, because a close relative (Silesaurus) had beetle remains in its fossil dung.2

Where the facts come from

  1. The first silesaurid dinosauriform from the Late Triassic (app.pan.pl)
  2. Diodorus scytobrachion (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Diodorus 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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