Some dinosaurs were big, really big. Others were small, pretty small and the Abrictosaurus is one such example. This cute little fella actually may not look harmful but there is a confusion about its food habits and since we don’t know enough about this guy, we will take it as a harmful contender on our list of dinosaurs. Let us learn 10 interesting facts about Abrictosaurus and uncover some interesting information.
At a glance
— Lived: 200-190 million years ago.
— Food: Possibly Omnivore.
— Species: A. consors.
Facts about Abrictosaurus: 1-5
1. Abrictosaurus is actually the Greek name for ‘Wakeful Lizard’. We don’t really understand why this name was chosen.
2. The Abrictosaurus hailed from the early Jurassic Period which was around 200-190 million years ago.
3. It is believed to be an herbivore but there are chances that it might have been an omnivore, i.e. it fed on both plants and meat. This is the only reason to put it on the list of dangerous dinosaurs.
4. Abrictosaurus was pretty small in size. The adult reached a maximum length of 4 feet and a maximum weight of 100 pounds (or around 45 kilograms).
5. This dinosaur wasn’t really discovered in a complete status. Only partial remains were found which were used by the scientists to come up with the structure we see above.
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Facts about Abrictosaurus: 6-10
6. Scientists consider the Abrictosaurus to be a close relative of the Heterodontosaur because of the similar teeth structure. Well, despite the heavy and mouthful name, the Heterodontosaur was actually a small fella. We will cover this one later.
7. The presence of the canine-like tusks in one of the two specimens discovered forced the scientists to believe that the species was sexually dimorphic. Put in simpler words, adult males and females differed in appearance and size.
8. The females of this species did not have the canine-like tusks.
9. The cheek teeth of the Abrictosaurus was widely split and its lower crowns were similar to early orthischians (which are nothing but beaked herbivore dinosaurs).
10. One of the two fossils found was from South Africa’s Cape Province and the other one was found in Lesotho’s Qacha’s Nek District’s Upper Elliot Formation.
Did you find the information useful? Do you know more interesting facts about Abrictosaurus? Let us know in the comments section. We will be glad to learn more new facts about this little fellow.