Emiliasaura alessandrii
"Emilia"
- Length
- 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (145–100 Mya)
- Place
- South America · Argentina
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Emiliasaura (meaning “Emilia’s lizard”) is an extinct genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) Mulichinco Formation of Neuquén Province, Argentina. The genus contains a single species, Emiliasaura alessandrii, known from three individual specimens. Emiliasaura was initially described as a rhabdodontomorph. If this identification is correct, it would represent the oldest member of this clade and the first named from South America. However, a later analysis of rhabdodontomorphs failed to recover Emiliasaura within this clade, instead placing it as a styracosternan.
What we know
- Named by Coria et al., 2025.
- Fossils found in South America and Argentina.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Emiliasaura — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.