Pegomastax
Pegomastax was a tiny, parrot-beaked dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa. It used its strong jaws and sharp front teeth to chomp on tough plants, like a little dinosaur gardener.1
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Fun facts
Pegomastax had a very deep, parrot-like beak at the front of its jaw, which helped it bite into tough plants.1
Its skull was only about 73 mm (2.9 inches) long, smaller than a chicken's skull.1
Pegomastax lived alongside many other dinosaurs, including the long-necked Massospondylus and the small ornithischian Lesothosaurus.1
The only fossil of Pegomastax is a partial skull with a well-preserved lower jaw and teeth, found in the upper Elliot Formation.1
Scientists think Pegomastax may have been most closely related to a South American dinosaur called Manidens.1
Pegomastax had a mobile predentary bone in its lower jaw, which helped it move its beak up and down while chewing.1
Most asked questions about Pegomastax
?Did Pegomastax have feathers?
Scientists think it was covered in porcupine-like quills, not feathers.4
?What did Pegomastax eat?
It was a plant-eater. It used its beak and cheek teeth like scissors to shear tough plants.14
?Why did Pegomastax have fangs?
It used its fangs for self-defense and competing for mates, like some modern plant-eating deer and peccaries.4
?When did Pegomastax live?
It lived during the Early Jurassic, about 200 to 190 million years ago.1
?Where was Pegomastax found?
Its only fossil was found in the upper Elliot Formation in South Africa.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Pegomastax
- Named by
- Sereno 20126
- Group
- Beaked plant-eaters
- Family / clade
- Heterodontosauridae6
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Heterodontosauridae6
- Age of the rocks
- 201 to 193 million years (Hettangian / Sinemurian)6
- Rock formations
- Elliot6
- Countries
- South Africa6
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database6
- Discovery
- Pegomastax was named by American paleontologist Paul Sereno in 2012, based on a partial skull discovered in the 1966 to 1967 expedition to the Transkei District of Cape Province, South Africa.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating whether the large canine teeth of Pegomastax were used for defense, display, or occasional omnivory.1
Where the facts come from
- Pegomastax (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Dwarf species of fanged dinosaur emerges from southern Africa | University of Chicago News (news.uchicago.edu)
- New Fanged Dwarf Dinosaur Found—"Would Be Nice Pet" | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
- Dwarf 'vampire' dinosaur was a plant eater - BBC News (bbc.com)
- Pegomastax in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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