Outline: a typical ornithopod
Iani
- Lived
- 101 to 94 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ornithopods, Tenontosauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Zanno et al. 2023
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
95 million years ago
Field notes
About Iani
What it was like
Iani was a plant eater related to Tenontosaurus. It is known from a partial skeleton with a skull, and it had strong jaws built for chewing.
Its world
It lived about 101 to 94 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Utah. It comes from the Cedar Mountain Formation. It lived at a time when the kinds of plant eaters in North America were changing fast.
How it was found
Zanno and colleagues named Iani in 2023. The name comes from an ancient god of change and doorways.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Tenontosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: L. E. Zanno, T. A. Gates, and H. V. Avrahami, R. T. Tucker, P. J. Makovicky. 2023. An early-diverging iguanodontian (Dinosauria: Rhabdodontomorpha) from the Late Cretaceous of North America. PLoS One 18(6):e0286042:1-54