Sladmore Gallery

Near-complete skeleton of a camptosaurus, a species of small to medium-sized herbivorous dinosaurs found in western Europe and western North America that lived from the Late Jurassic Period (161.2 million to 145.5 million years ago) to the Early Cretaceous Period (145.5 million to 99.6 million years ago).

Its large, strong hind legs suggest it was usually bipedal, however, it could revert to moving quadrupedally when necessary, using its fused wrist bones as support when moving slowly to feed on ferns, liverwort and other plant life, rather than as arms for grasping. Its beak-like front of skull was used to nip off tough vegetation, which it then ground up with its large back molars. Its name, camptosaurus, translates to bent (kamptos) lizard (saurus), referring to its flexible back.