Stenopelix

Stenopelix is known from a skeleton that lacks the skull and neck, but the hip bones are so special that scientists use them to tell what kind of dinosaur it was.1

The fossil was found in 1855, but the bones were so soft that they left hollow impressions in the rock. Scientists made plaster and latex casts from these natural molds to study the dinosaur.1

Stenopelix was about 1.4 meters long, which is about as long as a bicycle, and weighed around 10 kilograms, like a big dog.1

For a long time, scientists argued about whether Stenopelix was a horned dinosaur or a dome-headed dinosaur. Now most think it was a horned dinosaur, but not everyone agrees.1

The hip bone of Stenopelix has a distinctive kink in the middle, which helps scientists identify it.1

Stenopelix lived about 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period, when Germany was a warm, lowland area.1