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Pisanosaurus

Say it: piss-AN-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Pisano's lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Triassic

Pisanosaurus was a tiny, plant-eating dinosaur that lived about 229 million years ago in what is now Argentina. It was only about as long as a big dog and weighed as much as a small bag of sugar.1

Lived

234 to 227 million years ago2

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

La Rioja Province, Argentina1

Food

Plants1 2

Length

1 to 1.3 m1

estimates vary because the only skeleton is incomplete

Weight

2 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 17 bananas

as long as 2.5 house cats nose to tailas long as 7 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 17 bananas

How big was Pisanosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Pisanosaurus is known from just one partial skeleton, discovered in 1962 by Galileo Juan Scaglia.1

Scientists are not sure if Pisanosaurus was a true dinosaur or a close cousin called a silesaurid.1

It lived alongside the large meat-eating dinosaur Herrerasaurus, which may have hunted it.1

The Ischigualasto Formation where it was found was a warm, humid floodplain with forests of ferns and giant conifers.1

Pisanosaurus was named after Argentine paleontologist Juan Arnaldo Pisano.1

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

?How big was Pisanosaurus?

Pisanosaurus was about 1 to 1.3 metres (3.3 to 4.3 feet) long and weighed around 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds).1

?What did Pisanosaurus eat?

Pisanosaurus was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants.1

?Is Pisanosaurus a dinosaur?

Scientists are not sure. It might be a very early ornithischian dinosaur, or it might be a close cousin called a silesaurid.1

?When did Pisanosaurus live?

Pisanosaurus lived about 229 million years ago, during the Late Triassic Period.1

?Where was Pisanosaurus found?

Its fossils were found in the Ischigualasto Formation in La Rioja Province, Argentina.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Pisanosaurus is definitely the oldest known ornithischian dinosaur.

Truth: Many scientists now think Pisanosaurus might be a silesaurid, a close relative of dinosaurs, not a true dinosaur at all.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Pisanosaurus
Named by: Casamiquela 19672
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Parapredentata2
Classification: Ornithischia2
Age of the rocks: 234 to 227 million years (Carnian)2
Rock formations: Ischigualasto2
Countries: Argentina2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Pisanosaurus was named and described by Argentine paleontologist Rodolfo Casamiquela in 1967, based on a partial skeleton found in 1962.1 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Pisanosaurus was a very early ornithischian dinosaur or a non-dinosaurian silesaurid.1

Where the facts come from

Pisanosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Pisanosaurus 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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