Outline: a typical sauropod
Ornithopsis
"bird-like"
- Lived
- 145 to 120 million years ago, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- United Kingdom
- Named by
- Seeley 1870
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
130 million years ago
Field notes
About Ornithopsis
What it was like
Ornithopsis was a long-necked sauropod known only from a few backbones. The bones are full of air spaces, which made them look bird-like to the scientist who named it.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now England. Its bones come from rocks such as the Wessex Formation.
How it was found
Seeley named Ornithopsis in 1870. It was one of the first sauropods to be named, and many bones once placed in it are now thought to belong to other animals.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Titanosauriformes
Sources: WikidataNamed in: H. G. Seeley. 1870. On Ornithopsis, a gigantic animal of the pterodactyle kind from the Wealden. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 4 5:279-283