Lesothosaurus

Lesothosaurus is a monospecific genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic in what is now South Africa and Lesotho. It was named by paleontologist Peter Galton in 1978, the name meaning "lizard from Lesotho". The genus has only one valid species, Lesothosaurus diagnosticus. Lesothosaurus is one of the most completely-known early ornithischians, based on numerous skull and postcranial fossils from the Upper Elliot Formation. It had a simpler tooth and jaw anatomy than later ornithischians, and may have been omnivorous in some parts of the year.

Lesothosaurus

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 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
ThyreophoraPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB
Length
1 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 8.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 192.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 9 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 9 of 9 occurrencesEarly Jurassic202–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201.9 Mya192.4 Mya

9 occurrences of Lesothosaurus on record, most of them in the Early 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

9 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

2 formations

  • Elliot Formation · Stormberg GroupMafeteng, Quthing · LS · 201.4–192.9 Mya6
  • Elliot Formation · Stormberg GroupEastern Cape, Free State · ZA · 201.4–192.9 Mya3
Elliot — 29.85°S, 27.25°EElliot — 31.29°S, 27.75°EElliot — 30.35°S, 27.75°EElliot — 30.40°S, 27.65°EElliot — 30.40°S, 27.52°EElliot — 30.62°S, 27.80°EElliot — 28.98°S, 27.37°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Lesothosaurus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Lesothosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

11 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Lesothosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 9 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Lesothosaurus

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itThyreophora through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Galton 1978