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Tanius

Say it: TAN-ee-us

Name means: “of Tan”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Tanius was a big, plant-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs. It lived in what is now China during the Late Cretaceous period. Its long, flat skull helped it nibble on plants.2 1

Lived

90 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Shandong Province, China1 2

Food

Plants2 3

Length

7 m1

estimated

Weight

2 tonnes1

Top speed

about 27 km/h (17 mph)

Running, 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 1.5 cars

as long as 7 dogs nose to tailas long as 39 bananas end to endas heavy as 67 big dogsas heavy as 400 watermelons

How big was Tanius compared to YOU?

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

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 22 km/h (14 mph)

Tanius about 27 km/h (17 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

The name Tanius honors Chinese paleontologist Tan Xichou, who helped discover the first fossils.1

Tanius lived about 72 to 71 million years ago, near the end of the dinosaur age.1

It shared its home with other dinosaurs like the armored Pinacosaurus and the huge duck-billed Shantungosaurus.1

The first Tanius fossils were found by Otto Zdansky in 1923, but only parts of the skull and skeleton could be saved.1

Tanius was a hadrosauroid, a relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs, but it did not have a bony crest on its head.1 3

The rocks where Tanius was found were formed by rivers and lakes, with a warm, humid climate.1

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

?How big was Tanius?

It was about 7 metres long and weighed around 2 metric tons.1

?What did Tanius eat?

Tanius was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants. It used its long, flat skull to nibble on vegetation.2

?When did Tanius live?

Tanius lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 72 to 71 million years ago.1 2

?Is Tanius a dinosaur?

Yes, Tanius is a dinosaur. It is a genus of hadrosauroid ornithopod dinosaur.1 2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Tanius
Named by: Wiman 19293
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Hadrosauroidea3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia3
Age of the rocks: 90 to 72 million years (Coniacian / Campanian)3
Rock formations: Jingangkou, Jiangjunding3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 5 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Tanius was named in 1929 by Carl Wiman, based on a partial skull found in Shandong, China by H. C. Tan and Otto Zdansky in 1923.1 2
Still debated: Scientists debate whether Tanius chingkankouensis is a valid second species, or if those fossils belong to a different dinosaur.1

Where the facts come from

Tanius (en.wikipedia.org)
Tanius | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Tanius 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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