Dinosaurs A to Z
Hadrosauridae

Arenysaurus

Generic ornithopod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Arenysaurus 6 m (19.7 ft) long
as long as 4 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ornithopod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Arenysaurus
Length
6 m (19.7 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (66 Mya)
Place
Europe · Spain
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Hadrosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Cerapoda Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Duck-billed dinosaurs with tooth batteries.

Arenysaurus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (66 million years ago), being one of the last non-avian dinosaurs and it went extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. It is known from a partial skull and skeleton found in the late Maastrichtian-age Tremp Formation of the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain. The type species is A. ardevoli, described in 2009 by Pereda-Suberbiola et al., a group of researchers from Spain. The genus name refers to Arén, where it was found, and the specific epithet honours geologist Lluís Ardèvol. Arenysaurus was a lambeosaurine, a member of the hadrosaurid subfamily with hollow and decorative cranial crests. It is one of the most complete and best dated ever found in the Late Cretaceous period.

What we know

  • Named by Pereda-Suberbiola et al., 2009.
  • Body length estimated at about 6 m.
  • Fossils found in Europe and Spain.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Arenysaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.