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Fylax

Say it: FY-lax

Name means: “keeper”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Fylax was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived on ancient islands in what is now Spain. It was one of the last of its kind, living right before the big extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.4 2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fontllonga-R, Lleida province, northeastern Spain4 2

Food

Plants4 2

Length

4.2 m3

largest known specimen

Weight

360 kg3

largest known specimen

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 12 big dogs

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 23 bananas end to endas heavy as 72 watermelons

How big was Fylax compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Fylax lived on a chain of islands called the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago, which stretched between the Atlantic and Tethys oceans.2

Its name means 'keeper of the gates of hell' because it lived extremely close to the time of the big extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs.1 2

Fylax is known from just one nearly complete left jawbone, called a dentary, which was found in the early 1990s.1 2

Its teeth were tall and narrow, about 2.8 to 3.3 times taller than wide, and had no tiny bumps (denticles) along the edges.2

Fylax was a close relative of hadrosaurids, the duck-billed dinosaurs, but it was not a true hadrosaurid itself.4 2

Scientists think Fylax's ancestors may have come from Asia and traveled across islands to reach Europe and North America.2

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

?How big was Fylax?

Scientists do not know the exact size because only a jawbone has been found. The jawbone is 276 mm long, so it was probably a small dinosaur, maybe 1 to 2 metres long.1 2

?What did Fylax eat?

Fylax was a plant-eater. Its tall, narrow teeth and flat, steeply angled chewing surface suggest it sliced through tough plants.1 2

?When did Fylax live?

Fylax lived at the very end of the Cretaceous Period, just before the big extinction that killed the dinosaurs. Its fossils were found in rocks that are about 66 million years old.1

?Is Fylax a dinosaur?

Yes, Fylax is a dinosaur. It is a hadrosauroid ornithopod, a type of duck-billed plant-eating dinosaur.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Fylax
Named by: Prieto-Márquez and Carrera Farias 20214
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Hadrosauroidea4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Figuerola4
Countries: Spain4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Fylax was named in 2021 by Albert Prieto-Márquez and Miguel Ángel Carrera Farias based on a jawbone found in the 1990s in northeastern Spain.4 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where the ancestors of Fylax came from, whether from Asia, Europe, or North America.2

Where the facts come from

Fylax (en.wikipedia.org)
app008212020 (app.pan.pl)
Fylax thyrakolasus | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Fylax 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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