The Gentle Giant
Plateosaurus was a big dinosaur that lived about 210 million years ago during the Late Triassic period.
| Meaning | Flat lizard [Plateo-saurus] |
| Pronunciation | PLAT-ee-oh-sore-us |
| When: | Late Triassic (214–204 million years ago) |
| Where: | Europe (notably in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Greenland) |
| What: | Sauropodomorph (early bipedal herbivorous dinosaur) |
| Weight: | Approximately 600–4,000 kg (0.6–4 metric tons) |
| Length: | About 4.8–10 meters (16–33 feet) |
| Diet: | Herbivorous (ate cycads, ferns, and conifers) |
| Discovered: | First described by Hermann von Meyer in 1837 |
Imagine a huge animal, longer than a bus, with a long neck and tail. It walked on two strong legs and had a small head with lots of teeth for munching plants.
Plateosaurus lived in what is now Europe and loved to roam the forests and plains looking for tasty leaves to eat.
Even though it was really big and heavy, Plateosaurus could move pretty fast to stay safe from hungry predators.