Huehuecanauhtlus

Say it: way-way-KAN-ow-tlus

Name means: “ancient duck”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Huehuecanauhtlus was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived in what is now Mexico. It had a long tail and walked on two legs or all fours. This plant-eater lived about 85 million years ago.1

Lived

86 to 84 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Michoacán, Mexico1 3

Food

Plants1 2

Length

6 m1

Weight

1 tonnes to 1.4 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 3 bicycles in a rowas long as 33 bananas end to endas heavy as 47 big dogsas heavy as 280 watermelons

How big was Huehuecanauhtlus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Huehuecanauhtlus is known from only two partial skeletons, one larger and one smaller.1

Its name comes from the Nahuatl language and means 'ancient duck'.1

It had tall spines on its back vertebrae, up to four times taller than the bone body.1

This dinosaur lived during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous, about 85.8 to 83.5 million years ago.1

Huehuecanauhtlus had a very curved bone in its hip called the preacetabular process.1

It was a medium-sized hadrosauroid, about 6 meters (20 feet) long.1

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

?How big was Huehuecanauhtlus?

It was a medium sized dinosaur, about 6 metres (20 feet) long and weighed around 1 to 1.4 metric tons.1

?What did Huehuecanauhtlus eat?

It was a plant-eater, like other duck-billed dinosaurs. Its teeth were good for chewing tough plants.1

?When did Huehuecanauhtlus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 85.8 to 83.5 million years ago, in the Santonian stage.1

?Where was Huehuecanauhtlus found?

Its fossils were found in Michoacán, western Mexico, at a place called Barranca Los Bonetes.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Huehuecanauhtlus
Named by: Ramírez-Velasco et al. 20124
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Hadrosauroidea4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)4
Rock formations: Cutzamala4
Countries: Mexico4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Huehuecanauhtlus was named in 2012 by Angel Alejandro Ramírez-Velasco and his team. The fossils were found in Michoacán, Mexico.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Huehuecanauhtlus is related to other duck-billed dinosaurs.1

Where the facts come from

Huehuecanauhtlus (en.wikipedia.org)
Huehuecanauhtlus Ramírez-Velasco et al. 2012 - Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Huehuecanauhtlus 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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