NAME

Meaning - Hesperosaurus (originally called Hesperisaurus) means “western lizard”
Pronounced - hes-PARE-uh-SAWR-us
Named By - K. Carpenter et al.
When Named - 2001
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater) - Hesperosaurus probably ate ferns, smaller club mosses, cycads, horsetails, and bushy conifers.
SIZE

Length - ?
Height - ?
Weight - ?
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the Morrison Formation, Jackson County, Wyoming, USA, North America.
FOSSILS

Hesperosaurus was found in Wyoming in 1985.
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 Thyreophora
  • Superfamily Stegosauria
  • Family Stegosauridae
  • Genus Hesperosaurus
  • Species H. mjosi (type species named by Carpenter et al., 2001)
INTERESTING FACTS

Hesperosaurus was a primitive stegosaurid dinosaur that had a single row of rounded plates running down its back; it also had four bony spikes (thagomizers) at the end of the tail.