Laquintasaura

What it was like

Laquintasaura was a small plant eater, about the size of a small dog. It walked on two legs and had teeth with rough edges for slicing plants.

It is one of the earliest members of the line that later produced armored dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus.

Its world

It lived about 201 to 200 million years ago, at the very start of the Early Jurassic, in what is now Venezuela. Its bones come from the La Quinta Formation.

How it was found

Barrett and colleagues named Laquintasaura in 2014. It was the first dinosaur named from Venezuela. The bones of several animals were found together, which suggests it may have lived in groups.