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Othnielia is a synonym of Nanosaurus.

JPInstitute.com Description[]

Othnielia was a little plant-eater that was named after one of the most important men in the study and collection of dinosaurs, Othniel C. Marsh. Othnielia was discovered in 1877 by Marsh himself, but he named it incorrectly. It was exactly 100 years later, in 1977, that the dinosaur was given its new name.

There is still disagreement over the assignment of this dinosaur. Despite having a great deal of fossil material, its relation to the hypsilophodonts is questioned. Dr. Bakker and others have suggested that it should not be considered a member of this primitive family because it is too advanced.

Dinosaur Field Guide Description[]

Othnielia (after Othniel C. Marsh) was originally found in the 1870s at Garden Park near Canyon City, Colorado. This is one of the most famous Jurassic quarries in the world and has given the world such dinosaurs as Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Stegosaurus. Despite years of searching, scientists have not found many ornithopods from the Late Jurassic Period. What we do know is that most of these were small, fast, agile plant-eaters with a single row of leaf-cutting teeth. The arms were proportionally small, making these dinosaurs back-heavy. This gave them better balance while running on their well-muscled hind limbs. Othnielia's teeth have a short crown with a root that extends four times longer. The dinosaur must have eaten soft plants, because the whole tooth is too small to eat any of the hard plant parts. (This left hard, fibrous plants to be eaten by the larger sauropods.) As one of the smallest dinosaurs, Othnielia made good eating for the juveniles of bigger theropods. Othnielia fossils have been found from hatchling to juvenile sizes. No adult skeletons have yet been found.

Fun Facts[]

The young of this small dinosaur Would fit in your hand.

Trivia[]

There are no mounted specimens on exhibit anywhere in the world.

Gallery[]

Links[]

http://web.archive.org/web/20030321092717fw_/http://www.jpinstitute.com/dinopedia/dinocards/dc_othni.html# https://web.archive.org/web/20080720024439/http://kids.yahoo.com/dinosaurs/332--Othnielia

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