Dino card No. 1738 of 2,027

Taleta

Say it: tah-LAY-tah

Name means: “three in Arabic, because it is the third duck-billed dinosaur found in the same rock layer”1

Ate: PlantsDuck-billsLate Cretaceous

Taleta was a small duck-billed dinosaur that lived in what is now Morocco. It had huge, blade-like teeth that gave it a wicked grin. This dinosaur was one of several duckbills that crossed the ocean to reach Africa and then quickly evolved into many different species.1

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago6

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Sidi Chennane, Morocco (Couche III layer)6

Food

Plants6 1

Length

3.5 to 5.5 m3 4

estimate based on comparison with Minqaria and Ajnabia

Weight

380 kg to 500 kg4

estimate

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 big dogs

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 31 bananas end to endas heavy as 100 watermelons

How big was Taleta compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Taleta is known from only two upper jaw bones (maxillae).2

Its teeth were huge for such a small animal, with tall, blade-like ridges on the crown.1

Unlike most duckbills, Taleta had only one tooth per tooth socket instead of several teeth stacked together.1

Taleta belonged to a group of lambeosaurine duckbills called Arenysaurini, which spread from Europe to Africa.6 2

It lived about 70 to 66 million years ago, near the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs.6

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

?How big was Taleta?

Taleta was a small duck-billed dinosaur, about the size of a pony. It was similar in size to Minqaria, which has been estimated at 3.5 metres long.3 1

?What did Taleta eat?

Taleta was a plant-eater. Like other duck-billed dinosaurs, it used its wide beak and rows of teeth to chew tough plants.3

?Did Taleta have feathers?

Nobody knows for sure. Duck-billed dinosaurs like Taleta are not usually shown with feathers in fossils, but some related dinosaurs had simple feathers, so it is possible.3

?When did Taleta go extinct?

Taleta lived at the very end of the Cretaceous period, about 67 to 66 million years ago. It died out along with all non-bird dinosaurs when the asteroid hit Earth.3 5

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Taleta
Named by: Longrich et al. 20256
Group: Duck-bills
Family / clade: Hadrosauridae6
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia > Hadrosauridae6
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)6
Rock formations: Couche III6
Countries: Morocco6
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Taleta was named in 2025 by Nick Longrich and colleagues. It was discovered in the phosphate mines of Morocco, where the bones were first mistaken for fish remains.6 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure how many species of duckbills lived in Africa. Limb bones hint at a fourth, larger species that has not yet been named.1

Where the facts come from

Nick Longrich - Blog (nicklongrich.com)
A new hadrosaurid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian Phosphates of Morocco provides evidence for an African radiation of lambeosaurines - the University of Bath's research portal (researchportal.bath.ac.uk)
Taleta (en.wikipedia.org)
Taleta taleta | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Nick Longrich - Blog (nicklongrich.com)
Taleta 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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