Look up · dinosaur 317 of 1,425
beaked plant-eater
Comptonatus
Say it like this: “COMP-tuh-NAH-tuss”
Comptonatus chasei
Comptonatus ate plants and walked on two or four legs. It lived in the Early Cretaceous. Bones have been found in the United Kingdom.
- When
- Early Cretaceous (Barremian) · roughly 125.8 to 121.4 million years ago
- Named in
- 2024 · Lockwood, J. A. F.; Martill, D. M.; Maidment, S. C. R.
- Hip height
- Not established
- Length
- Not established
- Weight
- Not established
- Found in
- the United Kingdom · Wessex
- Food and walking
- Herbivore · Two or four legs
- Kind
- beaked plant-eater · Ornithopod
- Family branch
- Hadrosauriformes
The story in short
The genus Comptonatus dates to 2024, the year J. A. F. Lockwood and colleagues described it. The name means “the Compton thunderer.”
It lived in the Early Cretaceous (Barremian), roughly 125.8 to 121.4 million years ago. Finds come from the United Kingdom, including the Wessex Formation. It was a herbivore and could move on two or four legs.
The fossils of Comptonatus are too incomplete for a responsible length, hip height, or weight, so those fields are left blank on purpose.
On the family tree it sits in Hadrosauriformes, among the ornithopod dinosaurs.
Close relatives
Barilium
Barilium dawsoni
Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) · roughly 137.1 to 132.6 million years ago
Brighstoneus
Brighstoneus simmondsi
Early Cretaceous (Barremian) · roughly 125.8 to 121.4 million years ago
Fukuisaurus
Fukuisaurus tetoriensis
Early Cretaceous (Aptian) · roughly 121.4 to 113.2 million years ago