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Vespersaurus

Say it: VESS-per-SORE-us

Name means: “western lizard”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Vespersaurus was a small, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in a huge desert in what is now Brazil. It had a very unusual foot with one big toe that did most of the walking, like a one-toed dinosaur!1 2

Lived

121 to 72 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Cruzeiro do Oeste, Paraná state, Brazil1 2

Food

Meat1 4

Length

1 to 1.5 m1

estimated

Weight

11.28 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 3 house cats

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 8 bananas end to endas heavy as 94 bananas

How big was Vespersaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Vespersaurus had a foot that worked like it had only one big toe, with the other toes held off the ground. This is very rare among dinosaurs.2 1

Its fossils were found in rocks that were once part of a giant desert called the Botucatu Desert.1

Scientists used computer models to test Vespersaurus's teeth and claws. They found its teeth were not good for fighting big prey, so it probably ate small animals or dead bodies.1

Vespersaurus was about the size of a large dog, only 1 to 1.5 metres long.1

Footprints that look like they were made by a one-toed dinosaur were found in the same area, and scientists think Vespersaurus or a close relative made them.1

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

?How big was Vespersaurus?

About 1 to 1.5 metres long (3.3 to 4.9 feet) and stood roughly 0.8 metres (2.6 feet) tall. It weighed around 11.3 kilograms (24.9 pounds), similar to a large dog.1 3

?What did Vespersaurus eat?

It was a meat-eater, but its teeth were not good for fighting big prey. Scientists think it ate small animals like lizards and pterosaurs, or maybe scavenged dead bodies.1 3

?Why did Vespersaurus walk on one toe?

Its foot had a big middle toe that carried all its weight, with the other two toes held up off the ground. This rare one-toed walk may have helped it run fast or move easily across the desert sand.1 3

?When did Vespersaurus live?

During the Late Cretaceous Period, about 90 million years ago. It lived in a huge desert that covered what is now southern Brazil.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Vespersaurus
Named by: Langer et al. 20194
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Noasauridae4
Classification: Theropoda > Ceratosauria4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 72 million years (Aptian / Campanian)4
Rock formations: Goio-Erê4
Countries: Brazil4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Vespersaurus was named in 2019 by Max Cardoso Langer and his team. Its bones were found between 2011 and 2015 at a site called Cemitério dos Pterossauros in Brazil.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if the one-toed footprints found nearby were really made by Vespersaurus or by a different dinosaur.1

Where the facts come from

Vespersaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
A new desert-dwelling dinosaur (Theropoda, Noasaurinae) from the Cretaceous of south Brazil (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
New dinosaur species discovered in Brazil balanced on single toes | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Vespersaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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