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Fossilized eggs have also been found; they are only about 1 inch long (2.5 cm). Coloradisaurus may be the adult version of Mussaurus.
WHEN MUSSAURUS LIVED
ENVIRONMENT
CLASSIFICATION
BEHAVIOR
DIET AND TEETH
ANATOMY
Mussaurus (pronounced moo-SAWR-us) was a small, early, plant-eating dinosaur. No adult Mussaurus fossils have been unearthed. Only large-eyed hatchling (baby) Mussaurus have been found. They were only 9-16 inches long (18-37 cm); these are the smallest dinosaur skeletons yet found. The entire young dinosaur could fit in a person's hand. This prosauropod dinosaur was perhaps up to 10 feet long (3 m) as an adult, weighing roughly 260 pounds (120 kg). It had a long neck, long tail, a small head with a long snout, and large, five-fingered hands with a large thumb claw (and smaller claws on the other fingers). Its back legs were larger than its front legs.
Mussaurus lived about 215 million years ago, during the late Triassic period. Among its contemporaries in the late Triassic in South America were Eoraptor, Riojasaurus, Coloradisaurus (which may be the same as Mussaurus), Frenguellisaurus, Herrerasaurus, Ischisaurus, Pisanosaurus, and Staurikosaurus .
Mussaurus lived in a dry, almost desert-like environment in what is now southern Argentina, South America.
Mussaurus was a Saurischian dinosaur, the order of lizard-hipped dinosaurs. It was a prosauropod or sauropodomorpha (long-necked, semi-quadrupedal herbivores that includes Massospondylus, Mussaurus, and Plateosaurus). The type species is M. patagonicus.
Mussaurus may have congregated in herds, and may have migrated seasonally across the arid (dry) European landscape during the late Triassic period, but this not certain.
Mussaurus was an herbivore (a plant eater). It was probably able to rear up on its back legs in order to graze on tall vegetation, like conifers and cycads. Its sharp teeth let it tear these tough leaves from the plants. It may have swallowed tiny pebbles and small stones to help in the digestion of the tough leaves and other plant material that it ate. These gizzard stones (gastroliths) would help grind up the food in the stomach.
INTELLIGENCE
Musaurus was a sauropodomorpha, a primitive dinosuar whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was the lowest among the dinosaurs.
LOCOMOTION
Mussaurus walked on two muscular legs, but may have been able to run on all four legs also (its back legs were longer than its front legs).
DISCOVERY OF FOSSILS
Ten fragmentary juvenile fossils, 4 skulls, and eggs have been found in the El Tranquilo Formation, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Mussaurus was named by paleontologists José Bonaparte and Martin Vince in 1979.
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