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Tethyshadros

Say it: TETH-ee-SHAD-ros

Name means: “Tethyan hadrosauroid”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Tethyshadros was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived on an ancient island in what is now Italy. It was a plant-eater with a beak and a padded hand, and it walked on two legs or all fours.1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Villaggio del Pescatore, Trieste Province, Italy4 1

Food

Plants4 1

Length

4.5 m1

estimated total length, though some scientists think this might be an overestimate

Weight

338 kg to 584 kg1

Height

1.3 m2

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

at the hips

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 19 big dogs

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 25 bananas end to endas heavy as 120 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Tethyshadros compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Tethyshadros lived on a large island in the ancient Tethys Ocean, which is why it was named after that sea.1

The first skeleton, nicknamed Antonio, was found in a vertical rockface and took years to dig out.1

Tethyshadros had a mix of old-fashioned features, like a short neck and a skull like Iguanodon, and advanced features, like teeth arranged in batteries like true hadrosaurs.1

Scientists once thought Tethyshadros was a dwarf dinosaur, but later bone studies showed the main skeleton was from a teenager, not a full-grown adult.1

A second skeleton, nicknamed Bruno, is bigger and more complete, with a full skull and many bones.1

Tethyshadros is one of the latest surviving non-hadrosaurid hadrosauromorphs, meaning it lived just before true hadrosaurs became common.1

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

?How big was Tethyshadros?

About 4.5 metres (15 feet) long, though some scientists think that estimate might be too high. The adult skeleton Bruno was 15 to 20% larger than the subadult Antonio.1

?What did Tethyshadros eat?

It was a plant-eater. Its beak and teeth were adapted for eating plants, and it may have used its strange serrated beak to bite specific food items.1 3

?Why did Tethyshadros have a strange beak?

Nobody knows for sure. It might have helped it bite certain plants, or been used for grooming or display.3

?Was Tethyshadros a dwarf dinosaur?

It was originally thought to be a dwarf, but later bone studies showed the main skeleton (Antonio) was a teenager, not a full-grown adult. The adult Bruno was larger.1

?When did Tethyshadros live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 81.5 to 80.5 million years ago.1

?Where was Tethyshadros found?

In an abandoned quarry at Villaggio del Pescatore, near Trieste, Italy. It lived on a large island in the ancient Tethys Ocean.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Tethyshadros was a dwarf dinosaur.

Truth: The first skeleton was a subadult, not a full-grown adult, so it was not a dwarf species.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Tethyshadros
Named by: Dalla Vecchia 20094
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Telmatosauridae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Aurisina4
Countries: Italy4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Fossil fragments were found in the 1980s by Alceo Tarlao and Giorgio Rimoli. A nearly complete skeleton was discovered in 1994 and excavated by 1999. The dinosaur was named Tethyshadros insularis by Fabio Dalla Vecchia in 2009.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate the exact total length of Tethyshadros, because the tail of the first skeleton was missing and its length had to be estimated.1

Where the facts come from

Tethyshadros (en.wikipedia.org)
Friuli-Venezia Giulia - Fossili Regionali (fossiliregionali.it)
The “Duck-billed” Dinosaur That Wasn’t (smithsonianmag.com)
Tethyshadros 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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