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Urbacodon

Say it: UR-ba-ko-don

Name means: “URBAC tooth, named after the Uzbeg, Russian, British, American and Canadian scientists who found it”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsEarly Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Urbacodon was a small, smart dinosaur that looked a bit like a bird. It had a long, low jaw with many teeth, but its teeth had no serrations, like a butter knife. It probably hunted small animals and maybe ate some plants too.1 2

Lived

126 to 72 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Uzbekistan (Dzharakuduk Formation), China (Iren Dabasu Formation), and possibly Russia (Ilek Formation)1 2

Food

Meat2

Length

1 to 2 m1

estimated from dentary size, about 79 mm long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to end

How big was Urbacodon compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Urbacodon is known mostly from its lower jaw bone, called a dentary. The jaw of the first species, U. itemirensis, is only 79.2 millimetres (3.12 inches) long.1

Unlike many other meat-eating dinosaurs, Urbacodon's teeth had no serrations, just like the teeth of Byronosaurus and Mei.1

The name Urbacodon is an acronym that honors scientists from Uzbekistan, Russia, Britain, America, and Canada who worked together on the project.1

Two species of Urbacodon have been named: U. itemirensis from Uzbekistan and U. norelli from China. They lived about 100 to 72 million years ago.1 2

The jaw of Urbacodon has a gap between the front teeth and the back teeth, a feature called a diastema. This might be unique to this dinosaur.1

Urbacodon was a troodontid, a group of dinosaurs that were very bird-like and had big brains for their size. They were probably very smart.1

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

?How big was Urbacodon?

Urbacodon was a small dinosaur, about 1 metre (3.3 feet) long.3

?What did Urbacodon eat?

Urbacodon was carnivorous, so it ate meat. It probably hunted small animals like lizards and mammals.3

?Did Urbacodon have feathers?

The fossils don't show feathers directly, but since Urbacodon was a troodontid, a group closely related to birds, it likely had feathers.1

?Where was Urbacodon found?

Urbacodon fossils have been found in Uzbekistan and China.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Urbacodon
Named by: Averianov and Sues 20074
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae4
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae4
Age of the rocks: 126 to 72 million years (Barremian / Campanian)4
Rock formations: Ilek, Dzharakuduk, Iren Dabasu4
Countries: Russia, Uzbekistan, China4
Fossil records: 6 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The first Urbacodon fossil, a left lower jaw, was found on September 9, 2004 by Anton Sergeevich Rezwiy near Itemir, Uzbekistan. It was named by Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues in 2007.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if the gap between the front and back teeth in the jaw is a normal feature of Urbacodon or just a quirk of the one fossil found.1

Where the facts come from

Urbacodon (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Urbacodon | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Urbacodon 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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