Ouranosaurus

Ouranosaurus is a genus of herbivorous basal hadrosauriform dinosaur that lived during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous of modern-day Niger and Cameroon. Ouranosaurus measured about 7–8.3 metres (23–27 ft) long and weighed 2.2 metric tons. Two rather complete fossils were found in the Elrhaz Formation, Gadoufaoua deposits, Agadez, Niger, in 1965 and 1970, with a third indeterminate specimen known from the Koum Formation of Cameroon. The animal was named in 1976 by French paleontologist Philippe Taquet, the type species being Ouranosaurus nigeriensis. The generic name is a combination of ourane, a word with multiple meanings, and sauros, the Greek word for lizard. The specific epithet nigeriensis alludes to Niger, its country of discovery. As such, Ouranosaurus nigeriensis could be interpreted as "brave lizard originating from Niger".

A picture published with the record for Ouranosaurus.

Filippo Bertozzo​​, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia​, Matteo Fabbri · 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
NeoiguanodontiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
7 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 7 of 8 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 8 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113.2 Mya83.6 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

8 occurrences of Ouranosaurus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

8 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

Elrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EElrhaz — 16.43°N, 9.13°EKoum — 8.35°N, 14.79°EAïn el Guettar — 32.27°N, 10.33°EWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°E

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

Ouranosaurus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Ouranosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

83 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Ouranosaurus, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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. 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 content2

Picture of Ouranosaurus

Credit
Filippo Bertozzo​​, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia​, Matteo Fabbri
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Tim
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 itNeoiguanodontia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Taquet 1972