The Bristol dinosaur

Posted by Bridget in Biology, Life, Palaeontology

West England’s very own dinosaur, the Thecodontosaurus, was discovered in the 1970s. Thecodontosaurus – also known as the Bristol Dinosaur as its bones are kept at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery – lived 210 million years ago in the village of Tytherington.

Thecodontosaurus was discovered in a quarry in Tytherington when the M5 motorway was being built.  The quarry was being used to provide the rock for the foundations of the motorway – and it also provided palaeontologists with new material for study after many original dinosaur bones were destroyed at the museum during the war.

The dinosaur’s scientific name, Thecodontosaurus antiquus, means ‘ancient socket-toothed reptile’.  It lived around 210 million years ago when the area where Tytherington now stands was part of one of a number of warm, tropical islands known as the Mendip Archipelago – a little like the Caribbean or the Seychelles today.

Thecodontosaurus was a small dinosaur, 2.5m long (about the size of a medium sized dog such as a Labrador with a long tail) with powerful back legs and smaller front legs.  It walked around on all fours but reached up into the trees with its front legs, using its claws to grab hold of the stems of prehistoric trees known as cycads.  Its small sharp teeth, each with tiny sharp bumps running along one side, were like knives able to tear through thick, juicy leaves.  Thecodontosaurus lived in small groups known as herds, with the male animals being larger than the females.

Source: Bristol University