Matheronodon

Say it: MATH-er-oh-no-don

Name means: “Matheron's tooth”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Matheronodon was a plant-eating dinosaur with huge, scissor-like teeth. It lived in what is now southern France about 74 to 72 million years ago. This dinosaur used its powerful jaws to chomp on tough palm leaves and other fibrous plants.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, Bouches-du-Rhône, southern France3 1

Food

Plants2 1

Length

up to 5 m1

estimated by lead describer Pascal Godefroit

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 5 dogs nose to tailas long as 28 bananas end to end

How big was Matheronodon compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Matheronodon had only four teeth in its upper jaw at a time, but each tooth was huge, up to 5 centimeters long.2

Its teeth grew in pairs of fused sockets, so one tooth sat in two holes. This made the tooth row look like a saw blade.2 1

Matheronodon's upper jaw bone was very strong, about 22 centimeters long and 10 centimeters tall.2

Scientists think Matheronodon ate tough monocot plants like Sabalites and Pandanites, which have lots of tough fibers.2 1

Matheronodon belonged to a group called rhabdodontids, which were common in Europe during the Late Cretaceous but not found in North America or Asia.2

The name Matheronodon honors Philippe Matheron, who first described dinosaur fossils from Provence, France.1

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

?How big was Matheronodon?

About 5 metres (16 feet) long, according to its lead describer.1

?What did Matheronodon eat?

It ate tough leaves of monocot plants like Sabalites and Pandanites, using its scissor-like teeth to slice through fibrous plant parts.1 2

?When did Matheronodon live?

It lived about 74 to 72 million years ago, during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Matheronodon
Named by: Godefroit et al. 20173
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Rhabdodontoidea3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Countries: France3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Matheronodon was named in 2017 by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues based on a right upper jaw bone and teeth found at Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, France. The site was discovered by Xavier Valentin in 1992.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what plants Matheronodon ate, but they think it fed on tough monocots like palms and pandans.2 1

Where the facts come from

Matheronodon (en.wikipedia.org)
Extreme tooth enlargement in a new Late Cretaceous rhabdodontid dinosaur from Southern France (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Matheronodon in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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