Huinculsaurus

Say it: hwin-KOOL-sore-us

Name means: “Huincul lizard”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Cretaceous

Huinculsaurus was a small, fast meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina. It had long legs and sharp claws for hunting, and it was about the length of a small car.2 1

Lived

110 to 106 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Neuquén Province, Argentina2 1

Food

Meat2

Length

up to 3.42 m1

estimate from a young individual

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 19 bananas end to end

How big was Huinculsaurus compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Huinculsaurus is only known from five back vertebrae and two hip vertebrae found together.1

Its closest relative might be Elaphrosaurus, a dinosaur that lived over 60 million years earlier.1

The fossils were discovered about 10 meters away from another dinosaur called Ilokelesia.1

Huinculsaurus was named in 2020, making it a recently discovered dinosaur.2

This dinosaur lived in a dry area with seasonal streams, alongside giant sauropods like Argentinosaurus and other predators like Mapusaurus.1

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

?How big was Huinculsaurus?

It was about 3.42 metres (11.2 ft) long, roughly the length of a small car.1

?What did Huinculsaurus eat?

It was a meat-eating dinosaur that hunted small animals.2

?When did Huinculsaurus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 95 million years ago.1

?Where was Huinculsaurus found?

Its fossils were discovered in the Huincul Formation of Neuquén Province, Argentina.1

Ask Rex about Huinculsaurus

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: Huinculsaurus
Named by: Baiano et al. 20202
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Noasauridae2
Classification: Theropoda > Ceratosauria2
Age of the rocks: 110 to 106 million years (Albian)2
Rock formations: Huincul2
Countries: Argentina2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Huinculsaurus was named by Mattia Baiano, Rodolfo Coria, and Andrea Cau in 2020. The fossils were found in the early 1990s by technicians at the Carmen Funes Museum in Argentina.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Huinculsaurus is related to other dinosaurs, because its fossils are so fragmentary. It might be a noasaurid, but some features look like abelisaurids.1

Where the facts come from

Huinculsaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Huinculsaurus 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