Dino card No. 1304 of 2,027

Ohmdenosaurus

Say it: ohm-den-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Ohmden lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Jurassic

Ohmdenosaurus was a small, four-legged plant-eater that lived in what is now Germany. It is one of the earliest known sauropods, the group of giant long-necked dinosaurs. Only a few leg bones have been found, but they tell us a lot about this early dinosaur.1

Lived

183 to 180 million years ago2

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Ohmden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1

Food

Plants1

Length

3 to 4 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 22 bananas end to end

How big was Ohmdenosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Ohmdenosaurus is the only dinosaur fossil ever found in the Posidonia Shale, a famous rock layer in Germany that is full of marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.1

The fossil was originally thought to be a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile. It was displayed in a museum as a plesiosaur arm bone until a scientist realized it was a dinosaur leg bone.1

The only known bones are a shinbone and two ankle bones. Scientists are not sure exactly how it is related to other sauropods because the remains are so few.1

The fossil was carried at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) from land into the sea, probably by a predator or by water currents, before it was buried.1

Ohmdenosaurus lived about 182 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic period, when the area was a shallow inland sea.1

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

?How big was Ohmdenosaurus?

It was small for a sauropod, about 3 to 4 metres (10 to 13 feet) long.1

?What did Ohmdenosaurus eat?

It was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants.1

?Where was Ohmdenosaurus found?

Its only fossil was found near the village of Ohmden in Germany, in the Posidonia Shale.1

?Is Ohmdenosaurus a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Ohmdenosaurus
Named by: Wild 19782
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropoda2
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda2
Age of the rocks: 183 to 180 million years (Toarcian)2
Rock formations: Posidonia Shale2
Countries: Germany2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: The fossil was collected from an old quarry near Ohmden, Germany, and was kept at the Urweltmuseum Hauff. In the 1970s, German paleontologist Rupert Wild noticed it was a dinosaur, not a plesiosaur, and named it Ohmdenosaurus in 1978.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Ohmdenosaurus fits in the sauropod family tree. Some studies place it within Eusauropoda, while others find it to be a more primitive sauropod. A few researchers even think the name might be doubtful because the fossil is so incomplete.1

Where the facts come from

Ohmdenosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Ohmdenosaurus 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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