Plateosaurus Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Plateosaurus

Mounted skeleton of Plateosaurus, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Prosauropoda
Family:	Plateosauridae
Genus:	Plateosaurus Meyer, 1837

Plateosaurus (meaning 'flat lizard') is a genus of plateosaurid prosauropod dinosaurs. They lived during the Norian and Rhaetian stages of the Upper Triassic period, around 216 to 199 million years ago in what is now Europe.

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.

Images for kids

Map of important Plateosaurus localities. Red = likely type locality Heroldsberg, black = important sites with many and well-preserved specimens. Other localities in blue.
P. engelhardti, collection number F 33 of the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Germany, in dorsal view. The skeleton was kept in articulation as found at Trossingen by Seemann in 1933. It has the typical folded hind limbs of most Plateosaurus finds. Unusually, the anterior body is not twisted to one side.
Outdated 1912 life restoration by Otto Jaekel showing tripodal pose
Skull cast of P. gracilis
Restoration of P. engelhardti
P. engelhardti skull cast, Royal Ontario Museum
Mounted P. engelhardti skeleton in Sauriermuseum, Frick
Life restoration of P. gracilis, formerly known as Sellosaurus gracilis
Dorsal view of left lower arm and hand of P. engelhardti ("Skelett 2") at the museum of the Institute for Geosciences of the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany. The shape of the radius dictates that the hand could not be pronated (turned palm down), and thus not play a role in locomotion.
Mounted cast of SMNS 13200. An example of the out-dated skeleton mounts in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in quadrupedal posture. The shoulder girdle is in an anatomically infeasible position, the elbow is disarticulated, and the ribcage has the wrong shape, wide instead of high oval.
Mount of P. engelhardti GPIT/RE/7288, a nearly complete individual from Trossingen at the museum of the Institute for Geosciences of the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany. Anatomically, this mount created under the direction of Friedrich von Huene is one of the best in the world, epitomising the agile, bipedal and digitigrade view of Plateosaurus confirmed by recent research.
Restoration of P. engelhardti and contemporary animals from the Trossingen Formation

Plateosaurus facts for kids

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See also