Plateosaurus

Plateosaurus trossingensis · An early long-necked plant-eater that walked on two strong legs and had grasping hands with big claws.

It lived about 227 to 204 million years ago.

Plateosaurus
Photo: DataBase Center for Life Science (DBCLS), CC BY 4.0
Plateosaurus
Photo: Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 3.0
Plateosaurus
Photo: D2Hills, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderSaurischia
FamilyPlateosauridae
GenusPlateosaurus
SpeciesPlateosaurus trossingensis

Where its fossils were found

Central and northern Europe (Germany, Switzerland, France, and a drill core from under the North Sea off Norway).

Fun facts

  • Unlike most dinosaurs, fully grown Plateosaurus varied hugely in size, from about 4.8 metres long to as much as 10 metres.
  • A piece of Plateosaurus leg bone was found in a drill core 2,256 metres under the North Sea seabed, making it the first dinosaur found in Norway.
  • Its eyes pointed to the sides rather than the front, giving it all-round vision to watch for predators.
  • Plateosaurus probably breathed like a bird, with a flow-through lung, rather than like a mammal.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).