Outline: a typical ornithopod
Bactrosaurus
BAK-troh-SORE-us
"club lizard"
- Lived
- 101 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 6 m (20 ft)
- Group
- Ornithopods
- Found in
- China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia
- Named by
- Gilmore 1933
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical ornithopod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Bactrosaurus
What it was like
Bactrosaurus was a plant eater about 6 meters (20 feet) long, an early relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs. It had no crest, but tall spines on its back bones may have given it a low ridge. It could walk on two legs or four.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in Asia. Its best bones come from the Iren Dabasu Formation of China, where it shared the land with the tyrannosaur Alectrosaurus, the giant oviraptor Gigantoraptor and the ostrich-like Archaeornithomimus.
How it was found
Gilmore named Bactrosaurus in 1933. Bones of several individuals have been found, which makes it one of the best known early duckbill relatives.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Hadrosauroidea
Sources: WikidataNamed in: C. W. Gilmore. 1933. On the dinosaurian fauna of the Iren Dabasu Formation. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 68(2-3):23-78