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Piatnitzkysaurus

Say it: pee-ət-NITS-kee-SOR-əs

Name means: “Piatnitzky's lizard”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Jurassic

Piatnitzkysaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in Argentina during the Jurassic Period. It was a medium-sized hunter with strong arms and powerful legs, and it ran on two feet.1

Lived

183 to 180 million years ago2

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Chubut, Argentina2 1

Food

Meat2 1

Length

4 to 4.3 m1

holotype is a subadult, adult may have been larger

Weight

450 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 15 big dogs

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 24 bananas end to endas heavy as 90 watermelons

How big was Piatnitzkysaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Piatnitzkysaurus is one of the most completely known meat-eating dinosaurs from the Jurassic of the Southern Hemisphere.1

It had four toes on each foot, which is unusual for a theropod dinosaur.1

Its braincase looks a lot like that of another dinosaur called Piveteausaurus from France.1

The first fossils were found in 1977, and more were collected in 1982 and 1983.1

Piatnitzkysaurus was named after Alejandro Piatnitzky, a Russian-born geologist who worked in Argentina.1

Scientists have changed their minds many times about which group this dinosaur belongs to, and now it has its own family called Piatnitzkysauridae.1

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

?How big was Piatnitzkysaurus?

About 4.3 metres (14 feet) long and around 450 kilograms (990 pounds) in weight, though that is for a subadult. It was a medium sized dinosaur.1

?What did Piatnitzkysaurus eat?

It was a carnivore, meaning it ate meat. It hunted other animals.1

?When did Piatnitzkysaurus live?

It lived during the Jurassic Period, about 179 to 177 million years ago.1

?Where was Piatnitzkysaurus found?

Its fossils were found in Argentina, in the Cañadón Asfalto Formation.1

?Did Piatnitzkysaurus have feathers?

The sources do not mention feathers. It is not known if it had feathers.1

?Is Piatnitzkysaurus a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a theropod dinosaur, a meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Piatnitzkysaurus
Named by: Bonaparte 19792
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Piatnitzkysauridae2
Classification: Theropoda2
Age of the rocks: 183 to 180 million years (Toarcian)2
Rock formations: Cañadón Asfalto2
Countries: Argentina2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Piatnitzkysaurus was named by Argentine paleontologist Jose Bonaparte in 1979. The first skeleton was found in the Cañadón Asfalto Formation in Argentina.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if another dinosaur called Condorraptor currumili is actually the same species as Piatnitzkysaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Piatnitzkysaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Piatnitzkysaurus 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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