A new addition has landed in 3D Dinopedia: Nipponosaurus — the name means “Japanese lizard,” and it belongs to the duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs). This plant-eater lived in the Late Cretaceous, around 80 million years ago, in what is now the Far East region. And it comes with a twist: it’s known from a single fossil skeleton — and that skeleton belonged to a very young animal.

At first glance, Nipponosaurus looks small-ish: about 4 meters long and 300–600 kg. But that’s the catch — the only specimen was essentially a dinosaur “teen,” so the true adult size remains a mystery. Based on close relatives, scientists suspect fully grown Nipponosaurus could have reached 7–8 meters and around 2 tons. It also wasn’t a slow mover: it likely switched between two-legged and four-legged walking, using a stiff tail to stay balanced.

Its real standout feature is its built-in chewing machine. Hadrosaurs packed hundreds of teeth into dense “dental batteries”: a broad beak clipped vegetation up front, while the back teeth ground tough plants — and as teeth wore out, new ones continuously replaced them. Open 3D Dinopedia to explore this fast-growing, high-performance herbivore in 3D!