Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Orodromeus
OR-oh-DROH-mee-us
"mountain runner"
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 2 m (7 ft)
- Group
- Early ornithischians, Thescelosauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Horner and Weishampel 1988
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical early ornithischian shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Field notes
About Orodromeus
What it was like
Orodromeus was a small plant eater about 2 meters (7 feet) long, much of that a long tail. It stood on long hind legs and was built for running, which was probably its best defense against predators.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Montana. Its bones come from the Two Medicine Formation, where it shared the land with the small hunter Troodon and the tyrannosaur Daspletosaurus.
How it was found
Horner and Weishampel named Orodromeus in 1988. It was found at a site rich in eggs, and at first some of the eggs were thought to be its own. Later work showed that those eggs belonged to Troodon instead. Its closest relatives include Oryctodromeus and Zephyrosaurus.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Thescelosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. R. Horner and D. B. Weishampel. 1988. A comparative embryological study of two ornithischian dinosaurs. Nature 332:256-257