Thescelosaurus fossils

Thescelosaurus

Thescelosaurus from the Greek thescelo- meaning "godlike", "marvelous", or "wondrous" and saurus "lizard") was a genus of small ornithopod dinosaur that appeared at the very end of the Late Cretaceous period in North America. It was a member of the last dinosaurian fauna before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. The preservation and completeness of many of the dinosaur bones specimens indicate that it may have preferred to live near streams.

This bipedal ornithopod is known from several partial dinosaur skeletons and dinosaur skulls that indicate it grew to between 2.5 and 4.0 metres (8.2 to 13.1 ft) in length on average. It had sturdy hind limbs, small wide hands, a head with an elongate pointed snout, and possibly small armour scutes along the midline of the back. This genus of dinosaur is regarded as a specialized hypsilophodont and a herbivore. Several species have been suggested for this genus, but only one, T. neglectus, is currently recognized; the others have been given their own genera, or are believed to be the same as T. neglectus (although there may be more than one species represented by the various fossil dinosaur skeletons classified as Thescelosaurus.)

The genus attracted media attention in 2000, when a specimen unearthed in 1993 in South Dakota was interpreted as including a four chambered fossilized heart. There was much discussion over whether the remains were actually of a heart. Many scientists now doubt the identification of the object and the implications of such an identification

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