Dino card No. 0836 of 2,027

Hudsonelpidia

Say it: hud-SON-el-PID-ee-uh

Name means: “Hudson's eyelid, named after the Hudson's Hope area in British Columbia”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursLate TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Hudsonelpidia was a small, fast-swimming marine reptile that lived in the Late Triassic oceans. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was actually an ichthyosaur, not a dinosaur. It had a short snout and huge eyes to hunt in dim water.1 2

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

227 to 206 million years ago2

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

Canada, British Columbia1 2

Food

Meat1

Length

up to 2 m1

scientists estimate less than 2 metres 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 Hudsonelpidia compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Hudsonelpidia had very long, straight spines on its back vertebrae, which helped support a tall fin or ridge.1

Its front flipper bones (the zeugopodials) were much wider than long, while its back flipper bones were much longer than wide.1

This ichthyosaur had a short snout and very large eye sockets, suggesting it relied on good vision to hunt.1

Hudsonelpidia lived during the Norian age of the Late Triassic, about 227 to 205 million years ago.1

It was a small ichthyosaur, less than 2 metres (about 6.5 feet) long, making it one of the smaller members of its group.1

The name Hudsonelpidia means 'Hudson's eyelid', referring to the Hudson's Hope area in British Columbia where it was found.1

AI-made picture of Hudsonelpidia — An AI-made picture of how Hudsonelpidia 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.

Ask Rex about Hudsonelpidia

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Hudsonelpidia
Named by: McGowan 19952
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Parvipelvia2
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha2
Age of the rocks: 227 to 206 million years (Norian)2
Countries: Canada2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Hudsonelpidia was named by paleontologist Chris McGowan in 1995, based on fossils found in British Columbia, Canada.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Hudsonelpidia is related to other ichthyosaurs, as different studies place it in different families.1

Where the facts come from

PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Hudsonelpidia 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex