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Sinusonasus

Say it: SY-noo-SAY-sus

Name means: “wave nose”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsEarly Cretaceous

Sinusonasus was a small, fast dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It had a wavy nose and big teeth, and it probably hunted small animals or ate plants too.1 2

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lujiatun village, Liaoning Province, China1 2

Food

Meat1 2

Length

1 m1

estimate by Gregory S. Paul in 2010

Weight

2.5 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 21 bananas

How big was Sinusonasus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Sinusonasus had a wavy nose bone, which is why its name means 'wave nose'.1

Its tail had long bones called chevrons that connected to form a flat plate under the tail.1

Sinusonasus had a sickle claw on its second toe, like a Velociraptor, which it could use to grab prey.1

Its lower leg was long, so it was probably a fast runner.1

The front teeth of Sinusonasus had no serrations, but the back teeth had serrations only on the back edge.1

Sinusonasus lived about 125 to 119 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous.2

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

?How big was Sinusonasus?

About 1 metre (3.3 feet) long and weighed around 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds).1

?What did Sinusonasus eat?

It was probably a carnivore or omnivore, hunting small animals and maybe eating plants too.2

?Did Sinusonasus have feathers?

The sources do not mention feathers, but many troodontid dinosaurs are thought to have had feathers.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Sinusonasus
Named by: Xu and Wang 20042
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae2
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)2
Rock formations: Yixian2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Sinusonasus was named and described by Xu Xing and Wang Xiaolin in 2004, based on a partial skeleton found in the Yixian Formation of China.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Sinusonasus was a fast-evolving early troodontid or part of a longer line of troodontids that started in the Jurassic.1

Where the facts come from

Sinusonasus (en.wikipedia.org)
Sinusonasus 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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