Dino card No. 0984 of 2,027

Kotasaurus

Say it: KOH-tah-SORE-us

Name means: “Kota Formation lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Jurassic

Kotasaurus was an early, long-necked dinosaur that walked on four legs. It lived in what is now India during the Early Jurassic period, about 190 million years ago.1

Lived

200 to 184 million years ago2

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Yamanpalli, Telangana, India1 2

Food

Plants1 2

Length

9 m1

Weight

2.5 tonnes1

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 1.5 cars

as long as 2 cars parked in a rowas long as 50 bananas end to endas heavy as 83 big dogsas heavy as 500 watermelons

How big was Kotasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Kotasaurus is one of the earliest and most primitive sauropods known.1

Fossils from at least 12 different Kotasaurus individuals have been found together in one spot.1

Kotasaurus had a tail club, which it may have used to fight other dinosaurs or defend itself.1

Its thigh bone was straight and oval in cross-section, like later giant sauropods.1

No skull has been found, only two teeth, so scientists are not sure what its head looked like.1

Kotasaurus lived alongside another early sauropod called Barapasaurus.1

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

?How big was Kotasaurus?

Kotasaurus was about 9 metres (30 feet) long and weighed around 2.5 tonnes (2.8 tons). That is about as heavy as a small elephant.1

?What did Kotasaurus eat?

Kotasaurus was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants. Its spoon-shaped teeth were good for stripping leaves.1 2

?Where was Kotasaurus found?

Kotasaurus fossils were found near the village of Yamanpalli in Telangana, India, in the Kota Formation. All known fossils come from one spot about 2,400 square metres (26,000 square feet) in size.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Kotasaurus
Named by: Yadagiri 19882
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropoda2
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda2
Age of the rocks: 200 to 184 million years (Sinemurian / Pliensbachian)2
Rock formations: Kota2
Countries: India2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Kotasaurus was named and described by P. Yadagiri in 1988. The fossils were found in the late 1970s near the village of Yamanpalli in India.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Kotasaurus is related to other early sauropods, though it is considered one of the most basal.1

Where the facts come from

Kotasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Kotasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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