Leaellynasaura

Leaellynasaura (meaning "Leaellyn's lizard") was a fast-running, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in Australia during the middle Cretaceous Period, roughly 115-110 million years ago. Australia was within the Antarctic Circle during the Cretaceous period, and it had a very long winter.

Leaellynasaura Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Cerapoda
Infraorder:	Ornithopoda
Genus:	Leaellynasaura Rich & Rich, 1989
Species
L. amicagraphica Rich & Rich, 1989 (type)

Description

Leaellynasaura is known from two nearly complete skeletons and two skulls. It is described as an ornithopod.^[1] Unlike some other ornithischians, the Leaellynasaura did not have any tendons in its tail. The tail is known for being among the longest of its relatives: it was three times longer than the rest of the whole body. It also has more vertebrae in its tail than any other ornithischians except for some hadrosaurs.^[2] It also had large eyes to help it look in the dark winter.