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Yaverlandia

Say it: yav-er-LAN-dee-uh

Name means: “of Yaverland Point or Yaverland Battery”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Cretaceous

Yaverlandia was a small meat-eating dinosaur that lived on the Isle of Wight in England. It is known from just a few pieces of skull, so scientists are still not sure exactly what it looked like. Some think it might not even be a dinosaur at all!1

Lived

133 to 121 million years ago5

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Isle of Wight, England1

Food

Meat5

Length

1 to 2 m2

estimated from skull size

Weight

2.3 kg3

estimate

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 19 bananas

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 19 bananas

How big was Yaverlandia compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Yaverlandia was first thought to be a plant-eating dinosaur called a pachycephalosaur, but now many scientists think it was a meat-eating theropod.1

The name Yaverlandia means 'of Yaverland', after the place where its fossils were found on the Isle of Wight.1

Only two partial skulls of Yaverlandia have ever been found, making it a very mysterious dinosaur.1

Some scientists think Yaverlandia might not be a dinosaur at all, but a different kind of reptile like a crocodile relative.1

Yaverlandia lived about 130 to 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.2

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

?How big was Yaverlandia?

Yaverlandia was very small, only about 90 centimetres (3 feet) long.4

?Did Yaverlandia have feathers?

Yes, it almost certainly had feathers, since it is thought to be a maniraptoran theropod, a group that includes feathered dinosaurs.4

?Is Yaverlandia really a dinosaur?

Yaverlandia is a dinosaur. It is classified as a pachycephalosaurid, a group of plant eating dinosaurs with thickened skulls.1

Ask Rex about Yaverlandia

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Myth buster

Myth: Yaverlandia was definitely a dome-headed dinosaur (pachycephalosaur).

Truth: Scientists now think it was probably a meat-eating theropod, not a dome-headed plant-eater.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Yaverlandia
Named by: Galton 19715
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Theropoda5
Classification: Theropoda5
Age of the rocks: 133 to 121 million years (Hauterivian / Barremian)5
Rock formations: Wessex5
Countries: United Kingdom5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: The first fossil of Yaverlandia was found in 1923 by F. M. G. Abell on the Isle of Wight. It was named Yaverlandia bitholus by Peter Galton in 1971.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Yaverlandia was a dinosaur or a different kind of reptile.1

Where the facts come from

Yaverlandia (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Yaverlandia bitholus | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Yaverlandia, an Isle of Wight Maniraptoran theropod - DinoWight (dinowight.org.uk)
Yaverlandia 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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