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beaked plant-eater
Claosaurus
Say it like this: “KLAY-uh-SOR-uhs”
Claosaurus agilis
Claosaurus ate plants and walked on two or four legs. It lived in the Late Cretaceous. Bones have been found in the United States.
- When
- Late Cretaceous (Coniacian · Santonian) · roughly 89.8 to 83.6 million years ago
- Named in
- 1890 · Marsh, O. C.
- Hip height
- 1.6 m · 5 ft
- Length
- 5 m · 16 ft
- Weight
- 700 kg · 1,543 lb
- Found in
- the United States · Niobrara Chalk
- Food and walking
- Herbivore · Two or four legs
- Kind
- beaked plant-eater · Ornithopod
- Family branch
- Hadrosauromorpha
The story in short
The genus Claosaurus dates to 1890, the year O. C. Marsh described it.
Fossils referred to Claosaurus date to the Late Cretaceous (Coniacian · Santonian), roughly 89.8 to 83.6 million years ago. Finds come from the United States, including the Niobrara Chalk Formation. It was a herbivore and could move on two or four legs.
Published estimates put Claosaurus at a length near 5 m, hips about 1.6 m high, and a body mass around 700 kg.
On the family tree it sits in Hadrosauromorpha, among the ornithopod dinosaurs.