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Dino Codex
AchelousaurusAI image
AI imageCreated with GPT Image 2 by OpenAI on Oct 31, 2026

Match with prompt

100% (8/8 items)

See the checklist, prompt and sources
  • ✓No long horns: rough bony bosses on the nose and above the eyes insteadมีปุ่มกระดูกบนจมูกและเหนือตา ไม่มีเขายาว
  • ✓Short frill with one pair of long spikes on the top edge, curving outward
  • ✓Large hooked parrot-like beak
  • ✓Quadrupedal, elbows slightly out, fingers pointing forward and outwardศอกกางเล็กน้อย มองเห็นไม่ชัดในมุมนี้
  • ✓Large rounded scales, some with small bumps
  • ✓Whole animal visible in side viewมุมเฉียงเล็กน้อย แต่เห็นทั้งตัว
  • ✓Scene matches the period and the fossil site
  • ✓No text, people or modern objects

Checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (checked item by item from the image) on Oct 31, 2026. The score is the share of checklist items the image gets right; it is not an expert scientific review.

Prompt used to create the image

Scientifically accurate paleoart of Achelousaurus, a herbivore Ceratopsidae dinosaur from Campanian times (83.6–72.2 million years ago). NO long horns: rough, rounded bony bosses on the nose and above each eye instead. A short frill with one pair of long spikes on its top edge, curving outward to the sides. Reference: Achelousaurus is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America, about 77 to 74.8 million years ago. The first fossils of Achelousaurus were collected in Montana in 1987, by a team led by Jack Horner, with more finds made in 1989. In 1994, Achelousaurus horneri was described and named by Scott D. Sampson; the generic name means "Achelous lizard", in reference to the Greek deity Achelous, and the specific name refers to Horner. The genus is known from a few specimens consisting mainly of skull material from individuals, ranging from juveniles to adults. Anatomy: a large, hooked, parrot-like beak; quadrupedal with pillar-like hind legs; front legs semi-erect with the elbows slightly out and the fingers pointing forward and outward, NOT palms-down; skin of large rounded scales, some with small conical bumps. Full body in side view, whole animal visible, standing in a Late Cretaceous landscape with conifers, ferns and early flowering plants, no grass lawns. Natural history museum illustration style, realistic textures and natural daylight, muted natural colors. No text, no labels, no humans, no modern objects.

Facts in the prompt come from Wikipedia (en) and Paleobiology Database

Achelousaurus

Name meaning: Meaning "Achelous lizard", after a Greek river god whose horn was broken off.

Herbivore

📏 About 6 m long, roughly two big rhinos end to end.

📐 Compare its size with other dinosaurs →

Find it in a game

Achelousaurus was a horned dinosaur from Late Cretaceous Montana, USA. Instead of a pointed nose horn it had thick, rough bony bosses on its nose and above its eyes, plus two long spikes on the edge of its frill.

Fun facts

  • Its name comes from the myth in which Heracles broke off the horn of the god Achelous, because this dinosaur seems to have "lost" its horns, leaving bony bosses.
  • Some scientists think it may belong to a single evolving lineage with other horned dinosaurs from the same area, but this is still debated.

Who lived alongside it

Dinosaurs found in the same rock formation as Achelousaurus (Two Medicine), so they lived in the same region at roughly the same time.

Formation data from the Paleobiology Database, counting only each genus's main formations. One formation can span hundreds of thousands to millions of years, so this doesn't mean any two of them ever met.

Scientific details

Classification
Ornithischian (bird-hipped)
Family
Ceratopsidae
When it lived
72.2–83.6 million years ago
Geologic stages
Campanian
Named by
Sampson, 1994
Fossil occurrences
2 sites

Countries with fossils

  • United States

Data from Paleobiology Database and Wikidata