kids encyclopedia robot

Leaellynasaura facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Leaellynasaura
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Leaellynasaura BW.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Superorder:
Dinosauria
Order:
Ornithischia
Suborder:
Cerapoda
Infraorder:
Ornithopoda
Genus:
Leaellynasaura

Rich & Rich, 1989
Species
  • L. amicagraphica Rich & Rich, 1989 (type)

Leaellynasaura (meaning "Leaellyn's lizard") was a fast-running, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in Australia during the middle Cretaceous Period, roughly 115-110 million years ago. Australia was within the Antarctic Circle during the Cretaceous period, and it had a very long winter.

Description

Leaellynasaura is known from two nearly complete skeletons and two skulls. It is described as an ornithopod. Unlike some other ornithischians, the Leaellynasaura did not have any tendons in its tail. The tail is known for being among the longest of its relatives: it was three times longer than the rest of the whole body. It also has more vertebrae in its tail than any other ornithischians except for some hadrosaurs. It also had large eyes to help it look in the dark winter.

Images for kids

  • Leaellynasaura-amicagraphica-ornithischian-dinosaur-fossil-p-185992-p-185993-350891-large

    Partial long tailed ornithopod skeleton originally attributed to Leaellynasaura

  • Leaellynasaura-amicagraphica-dinosaur-skull-p-185990-1330079-large

    Skull attributed to Leaellynasaura

  • Leaellynasaura reconstruction

    Restoration of three Leaellynasaura with hypothetical protofeathers

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Leaellynasaura Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.