Open Paleo

Valdosaurus

Galton, 1977 VAL-do-SAWR-us

From 'valdo', a modification of Old English 'weald' meaning 'a wood' (referring to the Weald region of England), combined with Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard'.

125.8–121.4 million years ago Barremian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Valdosaurus is a genus of bipedal herbivorous dryosaurid dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight and elsewhere in England. Originally its remains were believed to belong to Hypsilophodon. In 1889, Richard Lydekker assigned them to Camptosaurus, alongside a partial lower jaw, and applied the name Camptosaurus valdensis. In the 1970s, Peter Galton reassigned these remains to a new species of Dryosaurus, then to an entirely new genus and species, that being Valdosaurus proper. The type and only species of Valdosaurus, named by Galton, is V. canaliculatus.

Species

Valdosaurus canaliculatus Galton, 1977

Type species

From Latin 'canaliculatus' meaning 'with a small channel', referring to a distinct groove between the condyles of the lower femora.

Holotype
NHMUK PV R 184, NHMUK PV R 185 , Natural History Museum
Material
A pair of femora, about 14 cm long.
Notes
Galton (2009) records that one of the pair was cited incorrectly as R186 by Galton and Taquet (1982) and by Benton and Spencer (1995).
Horizon
Hypsilophodon Bed Bed, Wessex Formation, Barremian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–121.4 million years ago
Locality
Cowleaze Chine, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

Notable specimens

  • IWCMS 2013.175

    Dinosaur Isle Museum Found 2012 by Nick Chase most complete

    The most complete Valdosaurus known: a partly articulated rear half from Compton Bay, Isle of Wight, with a partial dorsal series, pelvic material, both hind limbs, and an almost complete 45-vertebra tail, the most complete tail of any described dryosaurid; about 4 meters long in life.

    Barrett (2016)

  • MIWG.6879

    Dinosaur Isle Museum largest individual

    A complete hind limb with a femur about 50 cm long, attributed to a skeletally mature adult and used to establish the taxon's maximum size at roughly 4 meters body length, in contrast to the juvenile-sized 14 cm type femora.

    Naish & Martill (2001)

References

  1. Barrett, P. M. (2016). A new specimen of Valdosaurus canaliculatus (Ornithopoda: Dryosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight, England. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 29-48. doi:10.24199/j.mmv.2016.74.04 barrett2016a
  2. Naish, D.; Martill, D. M. (2001). Ornithopod dinosaurs. Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (Martill, D. M.; Naish, D., eds.) 10: 60-132. The Palaeontological Association, London. naish2001b
  3. Galton, P. M. (1977). The ornithopod dinosaur Dryosaurus and a Laurasia–Gondwanaland connection in the Upper Jurassic. Nature 268(5617): 230-232. doi:10.1038/268230a0 galton1977a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026a
  5. Galton, P. M. (2009). Notes on Neocomian (Lower Cretaceous) ornithopod dinosaurs from England - Hypsilophodon, Valdosaurus, "Camptosaurus", "Iguanodon" - and referred specimens from Romania and elsewhere. Revue de Paléobiologie, Genève 28(1): 211-273.

    Gives the type femora as R184 and R185, and corrects the number miscited for one of them in the earlier literature.

    galton2009a
  6. Benton, M. J.; Spencer, P. S. (1995). Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain. Geological Conservation Review Series. Springer Netherlands. benton1995a
  7. Galton, P. M.; Taquet, P. (1982). Valdosaurus, a hypsilophodontid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe and Africa. Geobios 15(2): 147-159. galton1982a