Cryolophosaurus
Cryolophosaurus ellioti
It was the first predatory dinosaur found in Antarctica and the first non-avian dinosaur from that continent to be formally named.
Image: Jens Lallensack · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Sites on today's globe · 1 marker
Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Cryolophosaurus ellioti
- Period
- Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian)
- Lived
- 196–188 Ma (196 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Forest, Plains
- Length (estimate)
- 6.5 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 465 kg
- Discovered/described
- 1991 · William Hammer
Description
Cryolophosaurus was one of the largest predatory dinosaurs of the Early Jurassic and carried a striking crest running crosswise over its head. The only good skeleton belongs to a not yet fully grown animal 6 to 7 metres long. Antarctica's climate was far milder than today, with forests and rivers.
Habitat
Forested river landscapes on an Antarctica that was far milder then.
Fossil sites
Mount Kirkpatrick, Transantarctic Mountains
Hanson Formation
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Cryolophosaurus