Podokesaurus

Name means: “swift-footed lizard of Holyoke”1

Ate: MeatOther meat-eatersLate Triassic to Early Jurassic

Podokesaurus was a small, speedy dinosaur that lived in what is now Massachusetts, USA, during the Early Jurassic Period. It was a meat-eater with sharp teeth and hollow bones, built for running fast after tiny prey.1

Lived

227 to 193 million years ago2

Late Triassic to Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Massachusetts, USA (Portland Formation)1 2

Food

Meat1

Length

0.9 to 1.1 m1

estimate

Weight

1 kg to 40 kg1

Artist's life restoration of Podokesaurus — How Podokesaurus may have looked, by FunkMonk. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Podokesaurus could run at about 15 to 20 kilometers per hour (9 to 12 miles per hour).1

The only known fossil of Podokesaurus was lost in a fire in 1917, and no other definite specimens have been found since.1

Mignon Talbot, who discovered and named Podokesaurus in 1911, was the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur.1

A small piece of polished quartz was found among the ribs of Podokesaurus, and scientists think it might have been a gastrolith (stomach stone).1

Podokesaurus had hollow, lightweight bones, which helped it be a fast runner.1

Its lower leg bones were much longer than its upper leg bones, an adaptation for speed.1

Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Podokesaurus was the same as Coelophysis.

Truth: Scientists now believe Podokesaurus was a separate genus of coelophysoid dinosaur, not the same as Coelophysis.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Podokesaurus
Named by: Talbot 19112
Group: Other meat-eaters
Family / clade: Coelophysidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Coelophysoidea2
Age of the rocks: 227 to 193 million years (Norian to Sinemurian)2
Rock formations: Portland2
Countries: USA2
Fossil records: 26 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Geologist Mignon Talbot found the fossil near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910. She named it Podokesaurus holyokensis in 1911.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where in the Portland Formation the Podokesaurus fossil came from, so its exact age is uncertain.1

Where the facts come from

Podokesaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Podokesaurus 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.