Dryosaurus

Dryosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont. Fossils have been found in the western United States and were first discovered in the late 19th century. Valdosaurus canaliculatus and Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki were both formerly considered to represent species of Dryosaurus.

Dryosaurus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DryosauridaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
4 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 152.21 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 24 of 24 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 24 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 1 occurrence149–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–145 Mya — about 1 occurrence145–145 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences152.21 Mya149.2 Mya155.3 Mya142.6 Mya

24 occurrences of Dryosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

24 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Morrison — 40.42°N, 109.21°WMorrison — 41.91°N, 105.96°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.08°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 38.53°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 38.32°N, 108.83°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 40.50°N, 109.17°WMorrison — 40.46°N, 108.39°WMorrison — 39.01°N, 111.02°WMorrison — 38.25°N, 110.81°WMorrison — 40.46°N, 109.52°WMorrison — 39.14°N, 109.02°WMarnes de Bléville — 49.53°N, 1.35°WLourinhã — 39.85°N, 8.62°WSüntel — 52.29°N, 8.71°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dryosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dryosaurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Dryosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Dryosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 24 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Dryosaurus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dryosaurus Altus · dmnh:epv:DMNH 9001

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDryosauridae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1894