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Camptosaurus, Late JurassicMorrison Formation, Wyoming · named 1885
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Camptosaurus

KAMP-toe-SORE-us

"bent lizard"

Type species Camptosaurus dispar

Lived
155 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic
Diet
Herbivore
Length
about 5 m (16 ft)
Group
Ornithopods
Found in
United States
Named by
Marsh 1885

Size comparison

To scale

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

35 finds

150 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

Rivers crossed seasonally dry floodplains in the Morrison Formation, with conifers, ferns and horsetails. Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Dryosaurus lived in the region.

Field notes

About Camptosaurus

What it was like

Camptosaurus was a plant-eating ornithopod that grew to about 5 meters (16 feet) long. It walked mainly on two legs but could drop onto all four when moving slowly or feeding close to the ground. Its name refers to the bent, flexible shape of its limbs and back. Camptosaurus had a horny beak at the front of its jaws and rows of ridged teeth further back for grinding tough plants.

Its world

Camptosaurus lived across the western United States, in areas now part of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma, from the Late Jurassic into the Early Cretaceous. It shared the Morrison Formation with some of the most famous dinosaurs of the age, including the plated Stegosaurus, the predator Allosaurus, and giant sauropods such as Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus.

How it was found

Marsh named Camptosaurus in 1885, and it has since become one of the better known Jurassic ornithopods, with about 35 separate fossil finds recorded. It is considered an early relative of later iguanodontians such as Iguanodon.

Field gallery

More views of Camptosaurus

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Camptosaurus in its habitat, photo 1

1 of 7

Lived alongside

Found in the same rock formations

A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Camptosaurus.

The evidence

The science behind Camptosaurus

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • Skeletons show strong hindlimbs, shorter forelimbs and a long balancing tail.
  • Its jaws carried a beak at the front and ridged teeth farther back for processing plants.
  • The compact hand and wrist could support its weight when it moved on all fours.

Borrowed from relatives

  • Much of its body is known from its own skeletons.
  • The living beak covering and scaly exterior are reconstructed by comparison with other ornithopods such as Iguanodon.

Still unknown

  • Its skin color and pattern.
  • Exactly which plants it ate.
  • Whether it cared for its young.

Often drawn wrong

  • It had no tall duck-billed dinosaur crest.
  • Its tail balanced the body rather than trailing along the ground.

Discovery timeline

  1. 1885Named itMarsh
  2. 1909Full descriptionGilmore
  3. 1980Its worldDodson et al.
  4. 2008PostureCarpenter & Wilson
  5. 2011Family treeMCDONALD

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Camptosaurus

Close relatives

Other members of Ankylopollexia

Sources: Wikidata