Camptosaurus

What it was like

Camptosaurus was a plant-eating ornithopod that grew to about 5 meters (16 feet) long. It walked mainly on two legs but could drop onto all four when moving slowly or feeding close to the ground. Its name refers to the bent, flexible shape of its limbs and back. Camptosaurus had a horny beak at the front of its jaws and rows of ridged teeth further back for grinding tough plants.

Its world

Camptosaurus lived across the western United States, in areas now part of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma, from the Late Jurassic into the Early Cretaceous. It shared the Morrison Formation with some of the most famous dinosaurs of the age, including the plated Stegosaurus, the predator Allosaurus, and giant sauropods such as Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus.

How it was found

Marsh named Camptosaurus in 1885, and it has since become one of the better known Jurassic ornithopods, with about 35 separate fossil finds recorded. It is considered an early relative of later iguanodontians such as Iguanodon.