Dino card No. 1014 of 2,027

Laquintasaura

Say it: la-KWIN-ta-SORE-us

Name means: “La Quinta lizard, after the La Quinta Formation where it was found”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosEarly Jurassic

Laquintasaura was a tiny, speedy dinosaur that lived near the equator in what is now Venezuela. It was one of the earliest armoured dinosaurs, but it didn't have big plates yet,just a small, light body. Scientists found many of its bones piled together, which might mean it lived in a herd!1

Lived

201 to 200 million years ago4

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Táchira State, Venezuela1

Food

Plants4

Length

1 m1

estimated from femur length

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to end

How big was Laquintasaura compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Laquintasaura lived just after the end-Triassic mass extinction, about 201 million years ago, making it one of the earliest Jurassic dinosaurs.1

It is the first named dinosaur from northern South America, and it lived near the ancient equator.1

Scientists found at least four individuals in a single bonebed, which is the earliest evidence of ornithischian dinosaurs possibly living in groups.1

The largest thigh bone (femur) of Laquintasaura is only 90 mm long, showing it was a very small dinosaur.1

Its cheek teeth have a unique shape like an isosceles triangle, with coarse bumps (denticles) along the edges.1

Laquintasaura is a basal ornithischian, meaning it is an early relative of later armoured dinosaurs like Ankylosaurus.4

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

?What did Laquintasaura eat?

It was mostly a plant-eater, but its sharp, triangular teeth suggest it may have also eaten insects or other small prey, making it an omnivore.2 3

?Did Laquintasaura live in groups?

Yes, scientists found at least four individuals together in one bonebed, which is the earliest evidence of social behavior in an ornithischian dinosaur.3 1

?When did Laquintasaura live?

It lived about 200 million years ago, just after the end-Triassic mass extinction, in the earliest part of the Jurassic Period.2 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Laquintasaura
Named by: Barrett et al. 20144
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Thyreophora4
Classification: Ornithischia > Thyreophora4
Age of the rocks: 201 to 200 million years (Hettangian)4
Rock formations: La Quinta4
Countries: Venezuela4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Laquintasaura was named in 2014 by Paul Barrett and colleagues from a bonebed in the La Quinta Formation of Venezuela. The fossils were found in a road-cut between the towns of La Grita and Seboruco.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Laquintasaura lived in herds or if the many bones found together were just washed into the same spot by water.1

Where the facts come from

A palaeoequatorial ornithischian and new constraints on early dinosaur diversification (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Laquintasaura (en.wikipedia.org)
First Venezuelan dinosaur was a social animal (nhm.ac.uk)
Laquintasaura 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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