Limusaurus
LIM-oo-SORE-us
"mud lizard"
- Lived
- 162 to 155 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Theropods, Noasauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu et al. 2009
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
160 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on muddy river plains with wet ground that could trap small animals. The Shishugou Formation also preserves Guanlong, Mamenchisaurus and Yinlong.
Field notes
About Limusaurus
What it was like
Limusaurus was a small, slender theropod with a long neck, long legs and tiny arms. Young animals had teeth, but adults lost them and had a toothless beak instead. This change suggests that adults probably ate plants, even though they came from a line of meat eaters.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now China. Its bones come from the Shishugou Formation, where it shared the land with the crested tyrannosaur relative Guanlong, the predator Sinraptor and the long-necked Mamenchisaurus.
How it was found
Xu and colleagues named Limusaurus in 2009. Several skeletons were found trapped in pits of mud, perhaps footprints left by giant sauropods, which is where its name comes from.
Field gallery
More views of Limusaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
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 Limusaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Limusaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Skeletons from hatchlings to adults show that teeth disappeared as the animal grew, leaving toothless jaws in adults.
- Its small hands had a strongly reduced innermost finger.
- Stomach stones and the chemistry of its fossils support a probable change from eating plants and animals when young to eating plants as an adult.
Borrowed from relatives
- Almost the whole skeleton is known from its own bones, so little of its body shape needs to be borrowed from relatives.
Still unknown
- Its color and skin covering.
- Exactly which plants adults ate.
- Whether adults cared for their young.
Discovery timeline
- 2009Named itXu et al.
- 2010Fossil sitesEBERTH, XING & CLARK
- 2017Growing upWang et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Limusaurus
Named it
Described a beaked theropod with a reduced innermost finger and explored how dinosaur hands relate to bird wings.
A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies. Nature 459: 940-944
Read the paper : A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies (opens in a new tab)Fossil sites
Found that small dinosaurs became trapped in wet mud, probably churned into pits by larger dinosaurs walking over it.
DINOSAUR DEATH PITS FROM THE JURASSIC OF CHINA. PALAIOS 25: 112-125
Read the paper : DINOSAUR DEATH PITS FROM THE JURASSIC OF CHINA (opens in a new tab)Growing up
Showed that Limusaurus lost its teeth as it grew and probably changed from an omnivorous diet to eating plants.
Extreme Ontogenetic Changes in a Ceratosaurian Theropod. Current Biology 27: 144-148
Read the paper : Extreme Ontogenetic Changes in a Ceratosaurian Theropod (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Noasauridae
Sources: Wikidata