Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus
Telmatosaurus is a genus of basal hadrosauromorph dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. It was relatively small for its group, measuring approximately 5 m (16 ft) in length and 600 kg (1,300 lb) in body mass, which has been explained as an instance of insular dwarfism.

Franz Nopcsa · Public Domain · 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
- TelmatosaurusPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Time the record covers
At most 18 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
8 occurrences of Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus on record, most of them in the Late 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- Late Cretaceous100%
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
5 formations
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The named rock units Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
54 taxa- Allodaposuchus precedens4 sites
- Dortokidae4 sites
- Titanosauria4 sites
- Zalmoxes4 sites
- Ferenceratops shqiperorum3 sites
- Testudines3 sites
- Theropoda3 sites
- Allodaposuchus2 sites
- Gastropoda2 sites
- Kallokibotion2 sites
- Lithostrotia2 sites
- Magyarosaurus dacus2 sites
- Pterosauria2 sites
- Rhabdodon priscus2 sites
- Sabresuchus sympiestodon2 sites
- Saurornitholestes2 sites
- Struthiosaurus transylvanicus2 sites
- Zalmoxes robustus2 sites
- Acynodon1 site
- Albanerpeton1 site
- Allodaposuchus mechinorum1 site
- Ankylosauridae1 site
- Anura1 site
- Aves1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, 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
8 references- The unusual tail of Tethyshadros insularis (Dinosauria, Hadrosauroidea) from the Adriatic Island of the European archipelago1
- Some Maastrichtian vertebrates from fluvial channel fill deposits at Pui (Haţeg Basin)1
- More than just Nopcsa's Transylvanian dinosaurs: A look outside the Hateg Basin1
- Taphonomic modes in the Maastrichtian continental deposits of the Haţeg Basin, Romania—palaeoecological and palaeobiological inferences1
- A complete skull of Allodaposuchus precedens Nopcsa, 1928 (Eusuchia) and a reassessment of the morphology of the taxon based on the Romanian remains1
- Hatchlings of Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus (Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae) associated with megaloolithid eggs in the Tustea nesting site (Hateg Basin, Romania)1
- Les dinosauriens du Crétacé Supérieur du Midi de la France [The dinosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous of the south of France]1
- Dinosaurierreste aus Siebenbürgen (Schädel von Limnosaurus transsylvanicus nov. gen. et spec.) [Dinosaur remains from Transylvania (skull of Limnosaurus transsylvanicus nov. gen. et spec.)]1
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 Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Franz Nopcsa
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus · fggub:lpb:R.1305
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
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 itTelmatosaurus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nopcsa 1900)