Dino Wiki / All dinos / Beaked plant-eaters

Dino card No. 1804 of 2,027

Tietasaura

Name means: “Tieta lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersEarly Cretaceous

Tietasaura was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Early Cretaceous period. It is special because it is the first ornithischian dinosaur ever named from Brazil!1

Lived

137 to 126 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Bahia, Brazil1 4

Food

Plants4

Length

2 to 3.5 m2 3

estimate; largest known specimen

Weight

150 kg3

estimate; largest known specimen

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 5 big dogs

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 19 bananas end to endas heavy as 30 watermelons

How big was Tietasaura compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tietasaura is known from just one fossil: the lower end of a left thigh bone (femur).1

The fossil was discovered in 1906 during expeditions by London's Natural History Museum to South America.1

For many years, scientists thought the bone belonged to a crocodile-like reptile called Hyposaurus or Sarcosuchus.1

Tietasaura lived between about 137 and 126 million years ago, during the Valanginian to Hauterivian ages of the Early Cretaceous.4

It was named in 2024, making it a very recently discovered dinosaur.1

The name Tietasaura comes from 'Tieta', the main character of a Brazilian novel, and 'saura', meaning lizard.1

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

?How big was Tietasaura?

About 2 metres (6.6 feet) long. It was a small dinosaur, about the size of a bicycle.2

?What did Tietasaura eat?

Plants. It was an herbivore, meaning it ate leaves and other vegetation.4

?When was Tietasaura discovered?

The fossil was found in 2019, but it was not named as a new dinosaur until 2024.1

Ask Rex about Tietasaura

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Tietasaura
Named by: Bandeira et al. 20244
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Elasmaria4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 137 to 126 million years (Valanginian / Hauterivian)4
Rock formations: Marfim4
Countries: Brazil4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The only known fossil of Tietasaura was found in 1906 near Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, but it was misidentified as a crocodile for over a century. It was finally named and described as a new dinosaur by Bandeira and colleagues in 2024.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Tietasaura was, because only a piece of its thigh bone has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Tietasaura (en.wikipedia.org)
‘Tietasaura’: pesquisadoras da Uerj identificam nova espécie de dinossauro encontrada no Recôncavo Baiano - UERJ - Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (uerj.br)
Tietasaura derbyiana | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Tietasaura 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex