What are some unique facts about Plateosaurus?
The Plateosaurus was the first long-necked plant eater in the Triassic. An adult Plateosaurus can weigh up to 1,500 pounds and 27 feet long. They used both hands to pull leaves off trees, but since they had weak teeth, they used their sharp thumb claws to defense themselves against predators.
What did a Plateosaurus eat?
plants
Plateosaurus was a predominant herbivore, feeding on plants such as ferns and cycads. It would have been at the bottom of the food chain. It is known to have been fed on by other, but small, early dinosaurs, such as Herrerasaurus and Lilliensternus.
What did the Plateosaurus look like?
Plateosaurus had the typical body shape of a herbivorous bipedal dinosaur: a small skull, a long and flexible neck composed of 10 cervical vertebrae, a stocky body, and a long, mobile tail composed of at least 40 caudal vertebrae. The arms of Plateosaurus were very short, even compared to most other “prosauropods”.
Where are Plateosaurus fossils found?
Plateosaurus was a herbivore. It lived in the Triassic period and inhabited Europe. Its fossils have been found in places such as Bavaria (Germany), Thuringia (Germany) and Greenland.
How long did plateosaurus live?
How long did a Plateosaurus live? The minimum lifespan of a Plateosaurus dinosaur has been estimated to be at least 12-20 years from its discovered fossil. It most likely lived till 80-100 years like most other dinosaurs, attributed to its herbivorous diet and slow metabolic rate.
Is plateosaurus a dinosaur?
Plateosaurus was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered as a fossil. This plant-eating animal belonged to a group of dinosaurs called prosauropods. Prosauropods were the ancestors of the biggest land animals to ever live, the long-necked sauropods.
How long did Plateosaurus live?
Are Phytosaurs archosaurs?
Phytosaurs (Φυτόσαυροι in greek) are an extinct group of large, mostly semiaquatic Late Triassic archosauriform reptiles. Phytosaurs belong to the family Phytosauridae and the order Phytosauria.
What did the Plateosaurus evolve from?
Approximately 230 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, the dinosaurs appeared, evolved from the reptiles. Plateosaurus was one of the first large plant-eating dinosaurs, a relative of the much larger sauropods. It grew to about 9 meters in length.
Are phytosaurs crocodilians?
Despite their great similarities in appearance and lifestyle, there are still a number of minor differences that distinguish phytosaurs from true crocodiles. For one thing, the phytosaur ankle structure is much more primitive than that of any crocodile.