Ouranosaurus
genus of reptiles (fossil)
Ouranosaurus was a sail-backed, plant-eating, iguanodontid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous period. It was about 24 feet (7 m) long and may have weighed about 4 tons.
| Ouranosaurus Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous
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Fossil
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| Genus: | Ouranosaurus
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| Ouranosaurus nigeriensis Taquet, 1976
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Two almost complete Ouranosaurus fossils were found in the southern Sahara Desert, in northeast Niger, in 1966. Spinosaurus, a large, sail-backed meat-eater, was one of its contemporaries in the hot, Cretaceous environment of north Africa. Ouranosaurus was named by the French paleontologist Phillippe Taquet in 1976.
