Outline: a typical stegosaur
Paranthodon
pa-RAN-tho-don
"near Anthodon"
Type species Paranthodon africanus
- Lived
- 143 to 133 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Stegosaurs, Stegosauridae
- Found in
- South Africa
- Named by
- Nopcsa 1929
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
140 million years ago
Field notes
About Paranthodon
What it was like
Paranthodon was a stegosaur, a plated plant eater. It is known only from part of a snout with teeth, so its full appearance is uncertain. Its closest relatives may include Kentrosaurus and Dacentrurus.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now South Africa. Its bones come from the Kirkwood Formation, where the small theropod Nqwebasaurus also lived.
How it was found
Its bones were found very early in the history of paleontology and were first thought to belong to a very different reptile. Nopcsa gave it its own genus in 1929. It was one of the first stegosaur fossils ever found.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Stegosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution.