Rhabdodon

Rhabdodon was a stoutly built herbivorous ornithopod that lived across the island archipelagos of Late Cretaceous Europe, approximately 84 to 66 million years ago. Measuring around four metres in total length, it was about the bulk of a cattle beast. Unlike many slender ornithopods, it was stocky with muscular hind legs and deep, powerful jaws. Its name refers to the distinctive fluted, chisel-like ridges running down the enamel of its teeth, which formed an efficient shearing mechanism capable of slicing through tough, fibrous vegetation. Rhabdodon represents the hallmark genus of the Rhabdodontidae, an endemic European clade that flourished on islands in the absence of large hadrosaurs until the end-Cretaceous extinction.

Its robust, fluted teeth operated like heavy-duty shears to chop fibrous Mediterranean island plants.

Where and when

Rhabdodon lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 84 to 66 million years ago (Campanian-Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from France and Spain, in the Grès à Reptiles Formation.

The numbers

Length 4 m (estimates run from 3.5 to 4.5 m). Mass about 340 kg. Hip height about 1.4 m. That is 2.4 human-lengths, or 0.36 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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