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beaked plant-eater
Hypsilophodon
Say it like this: “hip-si-LOF-o-don”
Hypsilophodon foxii
Hypsilophodon ate plants and walked on two 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
- 1870 · Huxley, T. H.
- Hip height
- 0.6 m · 2 ft
- Length
- 1.5–1.8 m · 5–6 ft
- Weight
- 20 kg · 44 lb
- Found in
- the United Kingdom · Wessex
- Food and walking
- Herbivore · Two legs
- Kind
- beaked plant-eater · Ornithopod
- Family branch
- Hypsilophodontidae
The story in short
In 1870, T. H. Huxley published the name Hypsilophodon.
Fossils referred to Hypsilophodon date to 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 walked on two legs.
Published estimates put Hypsilophodon at a length near 1.5–1.8 m, hips about 0.6 m high, and a body mass around 20 kg.
On the family tree it sits in Hypsilophodontidae, among the ornithopod dinosaurs.