Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Chilesaurus
"Chile lizard"
Type species Chilesaurus diegosuarezi
- Lived
- 149 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Early ornithischians
- Found in
- Chile
- Named by
- Novas et al. 2015
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
145 million years ago
Field notes
About Chilesaurus
What it was like
Chilesaurus is one of the strangest dinosaurs ever found. It was a small plant eater with leaf-shaped teeth and a beak, yet it had the body shape of a two-legged predator, with short arms and two fingers on each hand. Its hips look like those of the bird-hipped dinosaurs.
This mix of features makes it hard to place. Many scientists think it was an unusual theropod that turned to eating plants. Others think it sits near the base of the bird-hipped line. The debate is still open.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Chile. Its bones come from the Toqui Formation, where many skeletons of it were found together.
How it was found
Novas and colleagues named it in 2015. The type species is Chilesaurus diegosuarezi, which honors the boy who first found its bones.
Close relatives
Other members of Ornithischia
Sources: WikidataNamed in: F. E. Novas, L. Salgado, and M. Suárez, F. L. Agnolín, M. D. Ezcurra, N. R. Chimento, R. de la Cruz, M. P. Isasi, A. O. Vargas, D. Rubilar-Rogers. 2015. An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of Chile. Nature 522(7556):331-334