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Echinodon

Say it: eh-KINE-oh-don
Name means: “prickly tooth”1
Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Echinodon was a tiny dinosaur that lived in England during the earliest Cretaceous period. It had sharp, pointy teeth that gave it its name, but it was a plant-eater that used its beak to crop vegetation.12

Lived
152 to 137 million years ago3
Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Dorset, England, and possibly western France1
Length
0.5 to 1 m (1.6 to 3.3 ft)12
estimated from small jaws
Weight
1 kg to 3 kg (2 to 7 lb)1
Height
0.33 m (1.1 ft)
estimate
Top speed
about 21 km/h (13 mph)
Running, estimate
What did Echinodon eat?
Echinodon was a plant-eater. It used its beak to crop plants and its sharp teeth to chew them, though some scientists once thought it might have eaten insects too.

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Echinodon about 1 m long (3.3 ft)A house cat about 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A dog about 1 m (3.3 ft)A bicycle about 1.8 m (5.9 ft)

How tall was it?

A house catabout 0.3 m (1 ft)Echinodonabout 0.33 m tall (1.1 ft)A dogabout 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A horseabout 1.6 m (5.2 ft)

estimate

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 25 bananas
as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 25 bananassmall enough to walk under a chaircould run 100 metres in 17 seconds (the fastest human needs 9.6)

How big was Echinodon compared to YOU?

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How fast was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Echinodon is one of the smallest and youngest heterodontosaurid dinosaurs known, living about 145 million years ago.1

2

Its name means 'prickly tooth' because of its sharp, pointed teeth, which were different from the flat teeth of many other plant-eaters.1

3

Echinodon lived alongside other dinosaurs like Owenodon and Nuthetes, as well as many small mammals, in a warm, lagoonal environment.1

4

The first Echinodon fossils were jaw bones found by collector Samuel Beckles, and they were originally thought to belong to a lizard.1

5

Echinodon had a beak made of keratin, like modern birds, which it used to crop plants before chewing them with its teeth.1

6

Scientists once thought Echinodon might be a stegosaur or a lizard, but now they know it is a heterodontosaurid dinosaur.1

AI-madeAI-made picture of Echinodon
An AI-made picture of how Echinodon 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 Echinodon

?How big was Echinodon?

Echinodon was very small. Its skull was only about 62 millimetres (2.4 inches) long, making it one of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs.12

?What did Echinodon eat?

Echinodon was a plant-eater. It used its beak to crop plants and its sharp teeth to chew them, though some scientists once thought it might have eaten insects too.12

?Is Echinodon a dinosaur?

Yes, Echinodon is a dinosaur. It is a heterodontosaurid dinosaur, not a lizard, even though it was first thought to be one.12

?When did Echinodon live?

Echinodon lived during the earliest Cretaceous period, about 145 million years ago. It is the youngest known heterodontosaurid dinosaur.13

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Myth buster

Myth: Echinodon was a lizard or a stegosaur.

Truth: Echinodon is actually a small heterodontosaurid dinosaur, related to Fruitadens and Heterodontosaurus.1

For dino experts

Scientific name
Echinodon
Named by
Owen 18613
Group
Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade
Heterodontosauridae3
Classification
Ornithischia > Heterodontosauridae3
Age of the rocks
152 to 137 million years (Kimmeridgian / Berriasian)3
Rock formations
Lulworth, Morrison3
Countries
United Kingdom, USA, France3
Fossil records
6 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery
Echinodon was named by Sir Richard Owen in 1861 based on jaw bones collected by Samuel Beckles from the Purbeck Group in Dorset, England.1
Still debated
Scientists still debate whether Echinodon was a herbivore or an omnivore, because its sharp teeth might have been used for eating insects or meat as well as plants.12

Where the facts come from

  1. Echinodon (en.wikipedia.org)
  2. Taxonomy, morphology, masticatory function and phylogeny of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  3. Echinodon 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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