NAME

Meaning - Gasparinisaura means “Gasparini’s lizard” - named to honor the Argentine paleontologist Dr. Zulma B. Gasparini, who studied Mesozoic reptiles from Patagonia
Pronounced - gas-pa-REEN-ah-SAWR-ah
Named By - Rodolfo Coria and Leonardo Salgado
When Named - 1996
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater) - it probably ate plants like conifers, cycads, and ginkgos.
SIZE

Length - 31 inches (80 cm) long
Height - 1 ft (0.3 m) tall at the hips
Weight - 75 pounds (34 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 90 to 83 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils were found in Patagonia, Argentina, South America.
FOSSILS

A single partial skeleton has been found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Ornithopoda
  • Infraorder Iguanodontia - having spiked thumbs
  • Genus Gasparinisaura
  • Species G. cincosaltensis (type species named by Corio and Salgado, 1996)
INTERESTING FACTS

Gasparinisaura was a beaked dinosaur with a spiked thumb. It had long legs, short arms, and a relatively short snout.