Camptosaurus, << KAMP tuh sawr uhs, >> was a relatively large plant-eating dinosaur from what are now North America and Europe. It lived about 154 million to 150 million years ago, toward the end of the Jurassic Period. Camptosaurus belonged to a group of dinosaurs known as ornithopods, meaning bird-footed ones. The animal weighed between 1 and 2 tons (0.9 and 1.8 metric tons). It measured about 20 feet (6 meters) in length and stood about 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) tall at the hips.
Camptosaurus may have traveled primarily upright on its two powerful hind legs. However, its smaller forelimbs had strong bony wrists, suggesting the animal may also have walked on all fours. This posture inspired the animal’s name, which comes from the Greek words for bent and lizard. The five-fingered hands and four-toed feet of Camptosaurus ended in hooflike nails.
Camptosaurus had large jaws and a horny beak that it used to snap off pieces of plants. The front of its beak was toothless, but long rows of ridged, close-packed cheek teeth in the sides of its jaws helped it grind up plant food. A long snout enabled Camptosaurus to graze selectively. It could push the end of its snout into a plant and bite off the part that it wanted.
Camptosaurus fossils were first uncovered in Wyoming in the United States. The American scientist Othniel C. Marsh, a pioneer in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life), named the dinosaur in 1885.
