Weewarrasaurus

Say it: wee-WAR-ah-SORE-us

Name means: “Wee Warra lizard”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersLate Cretaceous

Weewarrasaurus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Australia. It had a beak and walked on two legs, munching on ferns and other plants.4 1

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia1

Food

Plants4 1

Length

1 to 2 m1

estimated based on similar ornithopods

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 Weewarrasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Weewarrasaurus is known from a jawbone preserved in precious opal, giving it a colorful, gem-like appearance.1

It lived about 100 to 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.4

The name Weewarrasaurus comes from the Wee Warra locality where its fossil was found.1

This dinosaur was a small ornithopod, about the size of a large dog.1

Weewarrasaurus shared its home with other ornithopods of different sizes, including a larger iguanodontian.1

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

?How big was Weewarrasaurus?

About the size of a Labrador retriever, or a large dog. It walked on its hind legs.3

?What did Weewarrasaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater. It had a beak and teeth for nibbling vegetation like ferns.3

?Why is Weewarrasaurus preserved in opal?

The fossil was preserved in opal because silica-rich solutions underground turned into the gemstone over millions of years. This happened in the Lightning Ridge area of Australia.3

?When did Weewarrasaurus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 94 million years ago. The rocks where it was found are early Cenomanian in age.2 1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Weewarrasaurus
Named by: Bell et al. 20184
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Elasmaria4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)4
Rock formations: Griman Creek4
Countries: Australia4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Weewarrasaurus was named in 2018 by Phil Bell and colleagues based on a jawbone found by opal miner Mike Poben near Lightning Ridge, Australia.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Weewarrasaurus grew, because only jawbones have been found so far.1

Where the facts come from

Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Weewarrasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Exclusive: Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Weewarrasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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