Dinosaurs A to Z
Telmatosauridae

Telmatosaurus

"marsh lizard"

Generic ornithopod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Telmatosaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ornithopod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Telmatosaurus
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (70–66 Mya)
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Telmatosauridae
Telmatosaurus reconstruction by Mihai D. Dumbravă, Bruce M. Rothschild, David B. Weishampel, Zoltán Csiki-Sava,
Reconstruction · Mihai D. Dumbravă, Bruce M. Rothschild, David B. Weishampel, Zoltán Csiki-Sava, (CC-BY)

Telmatosaurus (meaning “marsh lizard”) is a genus of basal hadrosauromorph dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. It was relatively small for its group, measuring approximately 5 m in length and 600 kg in body mass, which has been explained as an instance of insular dwarfism.

What we know

  • Named by Nopcsa, 1903.
  • Body length estimated at about 5 m.

What we guess

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