PBDB Taxon

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Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Tenontosaurus

Osteichthyes - Tenontosauridae

Taxonomy

Tenontosaurus was named by Ostrom (1970). Its type is Tenontosaurus tilletti. It is the type genus of Tenontosauridae.

It was assigned to Iguanodontidae by Ostrom (1970), Langston (1974), Thulborn (1974), Galton (1974), Taquet (1975), Galton and Jensen (1979), Sues (1980), Molnar (1980); to Hypsilophodontia by Norman (1989), Norman (1990); to Ornithopoda by Sues and Norman (1990); to Hypsilophodontidae by Weishampel and Weishampel (1983), Milner and Norman (1984), Norman (1984), Russell (1984), Carroll (1988), Galton (1989), Stanford et al. (2004); to Euornithopoda by Weishampel (2006); to Iguanodontia by Sereno (1986), Weishampel and Heinrich (1992), Coria and Salgado (1996), Sereno (1997), Winkler et al. (1997), Sereno (1998), Sereno (1999), Coria and Calvo (2002), Norman (2004), Novas et al. (2004), Ruiz-Omeñaca et al. (2007); to Iguanodontia by Kirkland (1997), Butler et al. (2008), Guenther (2009), McDonald et al. (2010), Ruiz-Omeñaca et al. (2010), Han et al. (2012); to Iguanodontia by Buchholz (2002), Galton (2009), McDonald (2012), Thomas (2015), Madzia et al. (2018), Herne et al. (2019), Dieudonné et al. (2020), Verdú et al. (2021); and to Tenontosauridae by Czepiński and Madzia (2025).

Species

T. dossi, T. tilletti (type species)

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1970	Tenontosaurus Ostrom p. 85
1974	Tenontosaurus Galton pp. 151-152
1974	Tenontosaurus Langston p. 82
1974	Tenontosaurus Thulborn p. 172
1975	Tenontosaurus Taquet p. 507
1979	Tenontosaurus Galton and Jensen p. 5
1980	Tenontosaurus Molnar p. 137
1980	Tenontosaurus Sues p. 52
1983	Tenontosaurus Weishampel and Weishampel p. 44
1984	Tenontosaurus Milner and Norman p. 147
1984	Tenontosaurus Norman pp. 342-344 fig. 7
1984	Tenontosaurus Russell p. 23
1986	Tenontosaurus Sereno
1988	Tenontosaurus Carroll
1989	Tenontosaurus Galton p. 218
1989	Tenontosaurus Norman p. 63
1990	Tenontosaurus Norman p. 153 fig. 11.7
1990	Tenontosaurus Sues and Norman p. 500
1992	Tenontosaurus Weishampel and Heinrich p. 164
1996	Tenontosaurus Coria and Salgado p. 454 fig. 13
1997	Tenontosaurus Kirkland p. 98
1997	Tenontosaurus Sereno p. 440 fig. 2
1997	Tenontosaurus Winkler et al. pp. 342-345 fig. 19
1998	Tenontosaurus Sereno p. 67 fig. 5
1999	Tenontosaurus Sereno p. 2138 fig. 2
2002	Tenontosaurus Buchholz p. 21
2002	Tenontosaurus Coria and Calvo p. 508 fig. 9
2004	Tenontosaurus Norman p. 414
2004	Tenontosaurus Novas et al. p. 79 fig. 2C
2004	Tenontosaurus Stanford et al. p. 257
2006	Tenontosaurus Weishampel p. 145
2007	Tenontosaurus Ruiz-Omeñaca et al. p. 8
2008	Tenontosaurus Butler et al. pp. 11, 21 figs. 2-3
2009	Tenontosaurus Galton p. 215
2009	Tenontosaurus Guenther p. 1428
2010	Tenontosaurus McDonald et al. p. 33 fig. 39
2010	Tenontosaurus Ruiz-Omeñaca et al. p. 84
2012	Tenontosaurus Han et al. p. 1391 fig. 14
2012	Tenontosaurus McDonald p. 2
2015	Tenontosaurus Thomas p. 5
2018	Tenontosaurus Madzia et al. p. 973 fig. 4
2019	Tenontosaurus Herne et al. p. 574 fig. 25
2020	Tenontosaurus Dieudonné et al.
2021	Tenontosaurus Verdú et al. p. 10 fig. 9
2025	Tenontosaurus Czepiński and Madzia p. 5

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
class	Osteichthyes
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
—	Sauropsida
class	Reptilia
subclass	Eureptilia	()
—	Romeriida

Rank	Name	Author
—	Diapsida	()
—	Archosauromorpha	(Huene 1946)
—	Crocopoda
—	Archosauriformes	Gauthier 1986
—	Eucrocopoda
—	Archosauria	()
informal	Avemetatarsalia
—	Ornithodira
—	Dinosauromorpha
—	Dinosauriformes
—	Dinosauria	()
—	Ornithischia	()
—	Genasauria
—	Cerapoda
—	Ornithopoda	()
—	Clypeodonta
—	Iguanodontia	()
—	Rhabdodontomorpha
family	Tenontosauridae
genus	Tenontosaurus

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Tenontosaurus Ostrom 1970

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†Tenontosaurus dossi Winkler et al. 1997

†Tenontosaurus tilletti Ostrom 1970

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
R. J. Butler et al. 2008	Dorsoventrally tall maxilla, nearly full height of the rostrum; orbit square; 12 cervical vertebrae; elongate tail (59+ caudals).

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

hydroxyapatiteo

Entire body:

yesg

Adult length:

10 to < 100o

Adult width:

1.0 to < 10o

Adult height:

1.0 to < 10o

Maximum body mass:

3000 kgg

Minimum body mass:

1000 kgg

Architecture:

compact or denseo

Ontogeny:

accretion, modification of partso

Grouping:

gregariouso

Environment:

terrestrialo

Locomotion:

actively mobileo

Life habit:

ground dwellingo

Diet:

herbivoresubo

Reproduction:

oviparouso

Dispersal:

direct/internalo

Dispersal 2:

mobileo

Created:

2005-08-25 05:58:58

Modified:

2005-08-25 07:58:58

Source: g = genus, subo = suborder, o = order

References: Kiessling 2004, Marsh 1875, Peczkis 1995, Benton 1983

Age range: base of the Late/Upper Aptian to the top of the Late/Upper Albian or 119.57000 to 100.50000 Ma

Collections (82 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Aptian	121.4 - 113.2	USA (Montana)	T. tilletti (137607)
Aptian - Early/Lower Albian	121.4 - 110.1	USA (Montana)	T. tilletti (25077 50347)
Aptian - Early/Lower Albian	121.4 - 110.1	USA (Wyoming)	T. tilletti (50354 50355)
Aptian - Albian	121.4 - 100.5	USA (Oklahoma)	T. sp. (24178 223864 223866)
Aptian - Albian	121.4 - 100.5	USA (Montana)	T. sp. (50692) T. tilletti (50543 50684 50685 50686 50687 50690 50691 50710 50713 50719 50720 137617)
Aptian - Albian	121.4 - 100.5	USA (Utah)	T. sp. (60814 97951 103969)
Aptian - Albian	121.4 - 100.5	USA (Wyoming)	T. tilletti (102299 137567)
Late/Upper Aptian	119.57 - 113.2	USA (Texas)	T. dossi (52895)
Late/Upper Aptian	119.57 - 113.2	USA (Maryland)	T. sp. (14376 47347)
Late/Upper Aptian - Early/Lower Albian	119.57 - 110.1	USA (Texas)	Camptosauridae indet. (14375) T. sp., Camptosauridae indet. (14388)
Late/Upper Aptian - Early/Lower Albian	119.57 - 110.1	USA (Oklahoma)	T. sp. (14374 14392 199750)
Late/Upper Aptian - Early/Lower Albian	119.57 - 110.1	USA (Montana)	T. tilletti (229407)
Early/Lower Albian	113.2 - 110.1	USA (Texas)	T. sp. (199751)
Albian	113.2 - 100.5	USA (Montana)	Camptosaurus sp. (50529) T. sp. (50537 50695) T. tilletti (50481 50482 50483 50488 50491 50492 50503 50525 50526 50527 50531 50538 50539 50540 50696 50701 50702 50706 50707 50718 52436)
Albian	113.2 - 100.5	USA (Wyoming)	T. sp. (50487) T. tilletti (50500)
Albian	113.2 - 100.5	USA (Arizona)	Iguanodontidae indet. (32298) Ornithischia indet. (32296)
Middle Albian - Early/Lower Cenomanian	110.1 - 93.9	USA (Montana)	Camptosaurus sp. (25076) Ornithopoda indet. (50478) T. sp. (50471 50473 50479 50501 50697 50698) T. tilletti (47346 50348 50474 50477 50490 50541)
Middle Albian - Early/Lower Cenomanian	110.1 - 93.9	USA (Wyoming)	T. sp. (50350) T. tilletti (50498)
Late/Upper Albian	106.3 - 100.5	USA (Utah)	T. sp. (224187)
Late/Upper Albian - Early/Lower Cenomanian	106.3 - 93.9	USA (Idaho)	T. sp. (53338)