Heterodontosaurus

Heterodontosaurus tucki is a species of small heterodontosaurid dinosaur that lived in the Early Jurassic period, 200 million years ago in South Africa. The name means "different toothed lizard" after its unusual teeth, and the specific dinosaurs is in honor of one of the supporters of the digs that excavated Heterodontosaurus.

Size
Heterodontosaurus is quite a small dinosaur, only reaching 1.2 meters (4 feet) in length fully grown, although when other related genera, such as Fruitadens, are known to be even smaller. Another specimen may have been 1.75 meters (5 feet), but this may be explained as a case of sexual dimorphism.

Teeth
Heterodontosaurus ' claim to fame is undoubtedly its teeth (which it gets its name from), because there are not one, but three different types on teeth in Heterodontosaurus ' mouth. In the front of skull is a horny beak and curved, sharp teeth, flat, plant-crushing teeth in the back, and in between are its infamous enlarged canines, colloquially known as "fangs".

Diet and classification
Heterodontosaurus is one of the earliest known ornithischian dinosaur, the group of dinosaurs that includes hadrosaurs, ceratopsians and stegosaurs. All those dinosaurs are strictly herbivorous, but how about Heterodontosaurus? Its plant-eating teeth are in the back and its meat-slashing teeth in the front, meaning Heterodontosaurus was closing to meat-eating ancestors that herbivorous ones.

Fast facts

 * Special features: Fangs
 * Description: Small, possibly quilled ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa.
 * Diet: Low-growing plants, lizards and small mammals.
 * Weight: 22 pounds (10 kilograms)
 * Meaning of name: "many-toothed reptile"
 * Fun fact: Possible Heterodontosaurus fossils found in Mexico might extend the time range of Heterodontosaurus to as far as the Late Triassic.
 * Classification: Heterodontosauridae --> Heterodontosaurinae
 * In popular culture: The game Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
 * Size: 5 feet (1.6 meters)

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Species number: #008



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