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Plateosaurus, Late TriassicLöwenstein Formation, Germany · named 1837
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Plateosaurus

PLAT-ee-oh-SORE-us

"broad lizard"

Lived
227 to 201 million years ago, Late Triassic
Diet
Herbivore
Length
about 8 m (26 ft)
Group
Early sauropodomorphs, Plateosauridae
Found in
Germany, France and Switzerland
Named by
Meyer 1837

Size comparison

To scale

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

33 finds

210 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Also reported from Greenland and United Kingdom.

Habitat

A wide floodplain that was dry for part of the year, crossed by rivers that flooded now and then. Many skeletons are thought to come from animals trapped in mud. Fossil horsetails and conifer-like plants come from the same rocks.

Field notes

About Plateosaurus

What it was like

Plateosaurus was a bipedal plant eater with a small head on a long, flexible neck, plump but sharp teeth for cropping plants, and powerful hind legs. It grew to about 8 meters (26 feet) long. Its short but muscular arms ended in grasping hands with large claws on three fingers.

Individual Plateosaurus varied a great deal in adult size, more than is typical for a dinosaur, and scientists are still studying what drove this variation. Its claws may have been used for defense or for pulling down branches while feeding.

Its world

Plateosaurus lived across what is now Germany, France, and Switzerland, from about 227 to 201 million years ago, during the Late Triassic, with possible finds also reported from Greenland and the United Kingdom. Its fossils come from formations including Trossingen, Löwenstein, Klettgau, and Feuerletten.

It shared its world with the predator Liliensternus, the small Procompsognathus, and other early relatives of the sauropods such as Ruehleia and Efraasia.

How it was found

Meyer named Plateosaurus in 1837, making it one of the earliest named dinosaurs still considered valid today. About 33 finds of the genus are known, some of them nearly complete skeletons, making it one of the best-known dinosaurs from its time.

Field gallery

More views of Plateosaurus

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Plateosaurus in its habitat, photo 1

1 of 7

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 Plateosaurus.

The evidence

The science behind Plateosaurus

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • Dozens of skeletons, many of them complete, which makes it one of the best known early dinosaurs.
  • Skulls of adults and young, and the skeleton of a very young animal.
  • Hands with a big thumb claw that faced inward and could grasp.

Borrowed from relatives

  • Very little: almost the whole body is known from its own bones.
  • Lips and skin are restored from what is known in other dinosaurs. No Plateosaurus skin has been found.

Still unknown

  • Whether it lived in herds or cared for its young.
  • Its color.
  • Exactly which plants it ate.

Often drawn wrong

  • Old museum mounts show it walking on all fours. Its hands could not turn palm down, so it walked on two legs.
  • Its snout tip carried teeth. It had no toothless beak.
  • Older pictures drag the tail on the ground. It was held up, to balance the body.

Discovery timeline

  1. 1837Named itMeyer
  2. 1992Fossil sitesSander
  3. 2010PostureMallison
  4. 2020Growing upNau et al.
  5. 2021SkullsLallensack et al.
  6. 2024RedescriptionSchaeffer

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Plateosaurus

Close relatives

Other members of Plateosauridae

Sources: Wikidata