Plateosaurus facts for kids

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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

  • Plateosaurus engelhardti

    Restoration of P. engelhardti

  • Side view of a skull and the anterior part of the neck. The skull is rectangular, nearly three times as long as it was high, with an almost rectangular lateral temporal foramen at the back. The large, round orbit (eye socket), the sub-triangular antorbital fenestra and the oval naris are of almost equal size. The lower jaw is shallow, and has a large process extending far behind the jaw joint. The teeth are small and form long rows.

    P. engelhardti skull cast, Royal Ontario Museum

  • A mounted skeleton of Plateosaurus engelhardti in a glass case, seen from front left. The animal stands on two legs, its back is bent, its neck curves strongly downwards, and the tail drags, creating a drooping look

    Mounted skeleton of P. engelhardti (almost complete specimen AMNH FARB 6810 from Trossingen, Germany)

  • Sellosaurus (1)

    Skull cast of P. gracilis

  • Plateosaurus engelhardti

    P. engelhardti in Sauriermuseum, Frick

  • Lateral view drawing of the animal; it is depicted as a biped with grasping hands with palms facing medially. The tail is held high, as is the neck.

    Life restoration of P. gracilis, formerly known as Sellosaurus gracilis

  • Photograph of the skull in side view, with a partial neck composed of seven vertebrae extending from it, seemingly articulated. However, the vertebrae are at a right angle, i.e. their neural spines point to what is to the left for the skull. Among each other they are articulated, forming a 110° curve, which the cervical ribs follow. Next to the fossil are explanatory signs, including a schematic drawing showing the skull openings and giving their names. The name shown is Plateosaurus quenstedti, a junior synonym of P. engelhardti.

    Plateosaurus engelhardti (previously P. quenstedti) skull and neck at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

  • Photograph of an articulated skeleton missing the head and tail, seen from above. The animal has the limbs strongly folded in a squatting posture, the arms are spread out with the palms facing up and inward. The body and neck curve to the right, with the body making a 40° curve and the neck a 110° curve. The trunk is compressed, which can be seen from the shoulder blades sticking straight up and the ribs being folded backwards. All sediment that is not necessary to keep the bones of the body and neck connected has been removed.

    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.

  • Photograph of the dinosaur skeleton in dorsal view. It is partly embedded in rock, so that all bones are in the position they were found in. The animal rests on its belly, neck and tail curving so that the overall shape is almost a U, with the limbs folded and spread widely, while its right arm is buried under the trunk, and the left upper arm extends outwards. The left lower arm cannot be seen, because it points down into the sediment. The ribcage is partly torn, and the ribs and gastral ribs are scattered, but the backbone is intact. The tail shows a gap where bones were destroyed during discovery.

    P. engelhardti, collection number MSF 23 of the Sauriermuseum Frick, Switzerland, in dorsal view. This is the most complete Plateosaurus skeleton from Frick.

  • Photograph of a mounted cast in left lateral view, with tail dragging on the ground.

    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.

  • Photograph of the mounted skeleton, seen from the front left. The animal stands on the hind limbs, with the body and tail horizontal. The neck curves down so that the snout is near the ground, as if the animal was feeding. The arms are flexed, with the hands well clear of the ground, and the palm directed medially.

    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, epitomizing the agile, bipedal and digitigrade view of Plateosaurus confirmed by recent research.

  • Plateosaurus BW

    Restoration of two P. engelhardti


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