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Ouranosaurus

Say it: oo-RAN-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “brave lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersEarly Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Ouranosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in Africa during the Early Cretaceous. It had a long, duck-like beak and a strange hump or sail on its back. This dinosaur was about as long as a school bus and weighed as much as a small car.1

Lived

121 to 66 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Niger and Cameroon1 4

Food

Plants1

Length

7 to 8.3 m1

Weight

2.2 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 5 bicycles in a rowas long as 46 bananas end to endas heavy as 1.5 carsas heavy as 73 big dogsas heavy as 440 watermelons

How big was Ouranosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Ouranosaurus is the only known horned ornithopod dinosaur, with small rounded horns in front of its eyes.1

Its snout was toothless and covered by a horny beak, like a duck's bill.1

Two nearly complete skeletons were found in Niger in 1965 and 1970, and a third partial specimen came from Cameroon.1 2

Ouranosaurus lived in a river delta alongside other dinosaurs like the huge crocodile Sarcosuchus and the meat-eater Suchomimus.1

It had 22 tooth positions in each jaw, for a total of 88 cheek teeth that formed a continuous grinding surface.1

The name Ouranosaurus means 'brave lizard' in Greek, and the species name nigeriensis refers to the country of Niger.1

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

?How big was Ouranosaurus?

About 7 to 8.3 metres long and weighed around 2.2 metric tons. That is roughly the length of a school bus and the weight of a small car.1 3

?Did Ouranosaurus have a sail on its back?

Yes, it had a large sail on its back made of long, wide neural spines. This sail spanned its back.1

?What did Ouranosaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater that used its cheek teeth to chew tough plants like leaves, fruit, and seeds. Its wide beak also suggests it could eat large amounts of low-quality food.1

?Where did Ouranosaurus live?

It lived in what is now Niger and Cameroon in Africa during the Early Cretaceous. It lived in a river delta environment alongside other dinosaurs.1

?When did Ouranosaurus go extinct?

It lived during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous, about 125 to 113 million years ago. It died out long before the end of the dinosaurs.1

?Was Ouranosaurus a dinosaur?

Yes, it was a herbivorous basal hadrosauriform dinosaur. It is not a pterosaur or marine reptile.1

?Did Ouranosaurus have horns?

Yes, it had small rounded horns in front of its eyes, making it the only known horned ornithopod dinosaur.1

?How fast could Ouranosaurus run?

Scientists do not know its exact speed. It was a large, plant-eating dinosaur with a stiff back, so it was probably not very fast.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Ouranosaurus
Named by: Taquet 19724
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Neoiguanodontia4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 66 million years (Aptian / Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Elrhaz, Koum, Aïn el Guettar4
Countries: Niger, Cameroon, Tunisia, Sudan4
Fossil records: 8 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Ouranosaurus was named by French paleontologist Philippe Taquet in 1976. The first skeleton was found in 1965 during a French expedition to the Gadoufaoua region of Niger.1 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether the tall spines on Ouranosaurus's back supported a hump or a sail.1

Where the facts come from

Ouranosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Philippe TAQUET 1976 Cahiers de Paléontologie, CNRS, Paris (naturalhistory.si.edu)
Ouranosaurus- Enchanted Learning Software (enchantedlearning.com)
Ouranosaurus 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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