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Telmatosaurus

Say it: tel-ma-toh-SORE-us

Name means: “swamp lizard”1 2

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Telmatosaurus was a small duck-billed dinosaur that lived on an ancient island. It was about as long as a car and ate plants like shrubs and leaves. Because it lived on an island with limited food, it became smaller than its relatives.1 4

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Romania, France, and Spain4 2

Food

Plants1

Length

5 m1 2

Weight

600 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 20 big dogs

as long as 5 dogs nose to tailas long as 28 bananas end to endas heavy as 120 watermelons

How big was Telmatosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Telmatosaurus is an example of insular dwarfism, meaning it became smaller because it lived on an island with fewer resources.1

The first Telmatosaurus skull was found by peasants in 1895 and given to Ilona Nopcsa, whose brother Ferenc later became a paleontologist and named the dinosaur.1

Telmatosaurus was originally named Limnosaurus, but that name was already used for a crocodilian, so it was changed to Telmatosaurus in 1903.1 4

Telmatosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 70 to 66 million years ago, on an island called Hațeg Island in what is now Romania.1 4

The holotype skull of Telmatosaurus is stored at the Natural History Museum in London under the number NHMUK PV R 3386.1

Telmatosaurus is a basal hadrosauromorph, meaning it is an early relative of the larger duck-billed dinosaurs like Edmontosaurus.1

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

?How big was Telmatosaurus?

About 5 metres (16 ft) long and 600 kg (1,300 lb). That is roughly the length of a small car.1 2

?What did Telmatosaurus eat?

It ate plants. Telmatosaurus likely ate shrubs, leaves, herbaceous plants and seeds.1

?When did Telmatosaurus live?

Telmatosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 84 to 66 million years ago.2

?Where was Telmatosaurus found?

Telmatosaurus fossils have been found in Romania, France and Spain. The first skull was found in Transylvania (Romania).1 2

?Why was Telmatosaurus so small?

Telmatosaurus was small because it lived on an island with limited food. This is called insular dwarfism.1 3

?Did Telmatosaurus have any diseases?

One young Telmatosaurus had a benign (non-cancerous) tumor called an ameloblastoma in its lower jaw. It is the first time this tumor has been found in a dinosaur.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Telmatosaurus was a large dinosaur like other hadrosaurs.

Truth: Telmatosaurus was actually quite small, only about 5 meters long and 600 kilograms, due to living on an island with limited food.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Telmatosaurus
Named by: Nopcsa 19034
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Telmatosauridae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Sînpetru, Densuș-Ciula, Sebeş4
Countries: Romania, France4
Fossil records: 23 in the Paleobiology Database4
Also known as: Hecatasaurus, Limnosaurus (older names now counted as the same animal)4
Discovery: Telmatosaurus was first named in 1899 by Ferenc Nopcsa as Limnosaurus, but he renamed it Telmatosaurus in 1903 because the original name was already taken. The first fossils were a skull and lower jaws found in Romania.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether fragmentary hadrosauroid fossils from Spain, France, and Germany belong to Telmatosaurus or to other dinosaurs.1

Where the facts come from

Telmatosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Telmatosaurus (nhm.ac.uk)
An unusual dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania and the island rule | PNAS (pnas.org)
Telmatosaurus 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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