The Bristol dinosaur
It was found in a quarry in Bristol in 1834, and is nicknamed the Bristol dinosaur.
The first dinosaurs · Long-necked plant-eaters
Thecodontosaurus
Socket-tooth lizard · THEE-co-DON-toe-SORE-us
A small, slim plant-eater with a longish neck, a small head and a long tail.
- Size
- About 2m long; 30kg
- Lived
- About 205 million years ago
- Found in
- Bristol, England, and South Wales
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To scale
How big was it?
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Good to know
Six things about the thecodontosaurus
The fourth dinosaur ever named
It was named in 1836, before the word dinosaur had even been invented.
It lived on islands
The Bristol area was then a group of small tropical islands.
Small for its family
Its later relatives were the largest land animals ever. It may have stayed small because it lived on islands.
Bombed in the war
Many of the original bones were destroyed when the Bristol museum was hit in 1940.
A quick little animal
Scans of its skull suggest good balance and that it could move nimbly on two legs.
The real thing
Photos of the thecodontosaurus
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
What it ate
Low-growing plants, and perhaps the odd insect.
How we know
Thousands of bones were found washed into caves and cracks in the limestone of the old islands.
Keep going
More from The first dinosaurs
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