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Yamanasaurus

Say it: ya-MAH-nah-SORE-us

Name means: “Yamana lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Yamanasaurus was a small, armored sauropod that lived in what is now Ecuador. It had a long neck and tail, a tiny head, and bony plates in its skin for protection. This dinosaur is the first one ever discovered in Ecuador!1 2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Yamana region, Loja Province, southwestern Ecuador1 2

Food

Plants1 3

Length

6 m1

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 33 bananas end to end

How big was Yamanasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Yamanasaurus was a saltasaurine, a group of sauropods that often lived near coasts and may have been small because they lived on islands.1 2

Its fossils were found by a local farmer in 2017, and scientists later studied them at a university in Ecuador.2

Yamanasaurus had a special kind of bone in its tail vertebrae that was spongy inside, without hollow spaces.1 2

This dinosaur lived about 66.9 million years ago, right before the asteroid hit that ended the age of dinosaurs.2

Yamanasaurus is the northernmost saltasaurine dinosaur ever found, meaning it lived farther north than its relatives.1 2

Its arm bone (radius) had a flattened shaft and a seven-sided, cup-shaped surface at the top.1 2

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

?What did Yamanasaurus eat?

It probably ate low plants, like ferns and shrubs, since it had a small head and a long neck for reaching ground-level food. [wikipedia.org]1

?How big was Yamanasaurus?

It was about 6 metres long, which is small for a sauropod.1

?Where was Yamanasaurus found?

Its fossils were discovered near Yamana, a town in southern Ecuador, close to the Peruvian border. [wikipedia.org]1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Yamanasaurus
Named by: Apesteguía et al. 20203
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Saltasauridae3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria3
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Río Playas3
Countries: Ecuador3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Yamanasaurus was named in 2020 by Sebastián Apesteguía and colleagues. The fossils were found in 2017 by a farmer in the Yamana area of Loja Province, Ecuador, and later studied by scientists.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Yamanasaurus was, because only a few bones have been found. The length of 6 metres is an estimate.1

Where the facts come from

Yamanasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
The first dinosaur remains from the Cretaceous of Ecuador (ri.conicet.gov.ar)
Yamanasaurus 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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