Herrerasaurus
Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
It is one of the oldest known large predatory dinosaurs and shows how early dinosaurs already took on diverse forms.
Image: ★Kumiko★ · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
- Period
- Late Triassic (Carnian)
- Lived
- 231–229 Ma (231 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Plains, Forest
- Length (estimate)
- 6 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 350 kg
Description
Herrerasaurus was a slender, bipedal predatory dinosaur with a deep skull, sharp teeth and grasping forelimbs. A flexible jaw joint may have helped it hold prey, although its precise function is unclear. It lived alongside other early dinosaurs and reptiles in a landscape with alternating wet and dry seasons. Its evolutionary position near the base of the dinosaurs remains debated.
Habitat
Warm, seasonally dry river landscapes of South America.
Fossil sites
Ischigualasto, San Juan
Ischigualasto Formation
Cultural profile: Argentina →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Herrerasaurus