Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Abrictosaurus
"wakeful lizard"
- Lived
- 201 to 193 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Early ornithischians, Heterodontosauridae
- Found in
- Lesotho
- Named by
- Hopson 1975
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
195 million years ago
Field notes
About Abrictosaurus
What it was like
Abrictosaurus was a small heterodontosaur, a plant eater that walked on two legs. Some specimens have fangs at the front of the jaw and some do not, which may be a difference between males and females or between adults and young.
Its world
It lived in the Early Jurassic, in what is now Lesotho. It comes from the Elliot Formation, where it shared the land with its relative Heterodontosaurus, the long-necked Massospondylus and the hunters Dracovenator and Megapnosaurus.
How it was found
Hopson named Abrictosaurus in 1975. The name was a reply to an idea that heterodontosaurs slept through dry seasons.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Heterodontosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. A. Hopson. 1975. On the generic separation of the ornithischian dinosaurs Lycorhinus and Heterodontosaurus from the Stormberg Series (Upper Triassic) of South Africa. South African Journal of Science 71:302-305