Dino card No. 1344 of 2,027

Padillasaurus

Say it: pah-DEE-yah-SORE-us

Name means: “Padilla's lizard, honoring Carlos Bernardo Padilla”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Cretaceous

Padillasaurus was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now Colombia about 130 million years ago. It is one of the few sauropods ever found in northern South America from the Early Cretaceous period.1 2

Lived

126 to 121 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Villa de Leyva, Boyacá Department, Colombia1 2

Food

Plants4

Length

16 to 18 m1

estimate based on few remains

Weight

10 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 100 bananas end to endas heavy as 7 carsas heavy as 1.5 elephantsas heavy as 2000 watermelons

How big was Padillasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Padillasaurus was first thought to be a brachiosaurid, a group of sauropods with very long front legs, but newer studies place it as a basal somphospondylan.1

The only known fossils of Padillasaurus are vertebrae from the back, sacrum, and tail, all from one animal.1

Its fossils were found in marine rocks, meaning the dinosaur's body washed into the sea after death.2

Padillasaurus lived about 130 million years ago, during the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous.1

The dinosaur was named after Carlos Bernardo Padilla, who helped start a paleontology center in Villa de Leyva.1

Ammonite fossils found with Padillasaurus helped scientists date the rocks to the late Barremian.1

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

?How big was Padillasaurus?

It was about 16 to 18 metres long and weighed around 10 tonnes. That is roughly as long as two school buses.1 3

?What did Padillasaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater. As a sauropod, it ate leaves and other plants.1

?When did Padillasaurus live?

It lived about 130 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Padillasaurus
Named by: Carballido et al. 20154
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Somphospondyli4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Macronaria4
Age of the rocks: 126 to 121 million years (Barremian)4
Rock formations: Paja4
Countries: Colombia4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Local farmers found the fossils in a limestone nodule in the 1990s near Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Scientists named it Padillasaurus leivaensis in 2015.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Padillasaurus was because only a few vertebrae have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Padillasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
UJVP_A_980505_O (staff.mef.org.ar)
Padillasaurus leivaensis (es.wikipedia.org)
Padillasaurus 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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