Lanzhousaurus
Lanzhousaurus was a huge, plant-eating dinosaur with teeth so big they were among the largest of any herbivore ever! It lived in what is now China during the Early Cretaceous, about 130 million years ago. This gentle giant could grow as long as a school bus and weighed as much as a large elephant.12
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Fun facts
Lanzhousaurus had 'astonishingly huge teeth' that were among the largest ever for any plant-eating creature.1
Its lower jaw was longer than one meter (over 3 feet), showing it was a very large dinosaur.1
The tooth enamel of Lanzhousaurus grew very rapidly, which helped its teeth stay strong.1
It was a styracosternan iguanodont, a group of beaked, plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four legs but could stand on two.1
Scientists think Lanzhousaurus weighed about 6 metric tons (6.6 short tons), as heavy as a large elephant.1
Most asked questions about Lanzhousaurus
?How big was Lanzhousaurus?
It was about 10 meters long and weighed around 6 metric tons, as heavy as a large elephant.1
?What did Lanzhousaurus eat?
It was a plant-eater that used its huge teeth to chew tough plants. Its teeth were among the largest of any herbivorous creature ever.1
?Why did Lanzhousaurus have such big teeth?
It had only 14 very large teeth per jaw, each about 10 cm long, to create a big chewing surface. Its tooth enamel grew very fast, about 0.24 mm per day.4
?When did Lanzhousaurus live?
It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago, in what is now China.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Lanzhousaurus
- Named by
- You et al. 20055
- Group
- Beaked plant-eaters
- Family / clade
- Styracosterna5
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia5
- Age of the rocks
- 126 to 113 million years (Barremian / Aptian)5
- Countries
- China5
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
- Discovery
- Lanzhousaurus was named by Chinese paleontologists You Hailu, Ji Qiang, and Li Daqing in 2005. They described it from a partial skeleton found in the Hekou Group of Gansu, China.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating exactly where Lanzhousaurus fits in the dinosaur family tree. Some think it is a close relative of hadrosaurs, while others place it among earlier iguanodonts.12
Where the facts come from
- Lanzhousaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Lanzhousaurus You et al. 2005 - Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)
- Stable Isotopes Reveal Rapid Enamel Elongation (Amelogenesis) Rates for the Early Cretaceous Iguanodontian Dinosaur Lanzhousaurus magnidens | Scientific Reports (nature.com)
- Lanzhousaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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