Outline: a typical ornithopod
Valdosaurus
"Weald lizard"
- Lived
- 137 to 121 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 3 m (10 ft)
- Group
- Ornithopods, Dryosauridae
- Found in
- United Kingdom
- Named by
- Galton 1977
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical ornithopod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
130 million years ago
Field notes
About Valdosaurus
What it was like
Valdosaurus was a small, fast plant eater about 3 meters (10 feet) long, a relative of Dryosaurus. It had long legs built for running, a beak for cropping plants and a long tail for balance.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now southern England. Its bones come from the Wessex Formation and the Tunbridge Wells Sand, where it shared the land with Iguanodon, the small Hypsilophodon, the armored Polacanthus and the hunters Baryonyx and Neovenator.
How it was found
Galton named Valdosaurus in 1977. Its bones had first been placed in other genera, including Hypsilophodon and Camptosaurus. Seven finds are known, mostly leg bones.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Dryosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: P. M. Galton. 1977. The Upper Jurassic dinosaur Dryosaurus and a Laurasia-Gondwana connection in the Upper Jurassic. Nature 268(5617):230-232