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HerrerasaurusAI image
AI imageCreated with GPT Image 2 by OpenAI on Oct 31, 2026

Match with prompt

100% (7/7 items)

See the checklist, prompt and sources
  • ✓Bipedal, back horizontal, tail held straight out off the ground
  • ✓Mouth closed, lips covering the teeth so none are visible
  • ✓Predator about 6 m long, long narrow low skull, long legs and tail, small scales
  • ✓Arms under half the leg length, three large curved claws on each handมือมีกรงเล็บโค้งใหญ่ แต่ห้อยลงพื้น
  • ✓Whole animal visible in side view
  • ✓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 Herrerasaurus, a Herrerasauridae dinosaur from the Carnian age of the Late Triassic (about 231 million years ago). Bipedal with the back held roughly horizontal and the tail held straight out behind for balance, never dragging on the ground. NOT standing upright like a kangaroo. Mouth closed with all teeth fully hidden behind scaly lips, like a monitor lizard. NO visible teeth. Reference: Herrerasaurus is likely a genus of saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic period. Measuring 6 m (20 ft) long and weighing around 350 kg (770 lb), this genus was one of the earliest dinosaurs from the fossil record. Its name means "Herrera's lizard", after the rancher who discovered the first specimen in 1958 in South America. Anatomy: a predator about 6 meters long with a long, narrow, low skull, long hind legs and a long tail, skin of small scales; arms less than half as long as the legs, with three large curved claws on each hand. Full body in side view, whole animal visible, standing in a humid Late Triassic river floodplain like the Ischigualasto Formation of Argentina, with conifers, seed ferns, horsetails and ferns, no grass and no flowering plants. 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

Herrerasaurus

Name meaning: Meaning "Herrera's lizard", after the rancher who found the first fossil.

Unknown diet

📏 About 3 m long, about as long as a small car.

📐 Compare its size with other dinosaurs →

Find it in a game

Herrerasaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs known. It lived in Argentina about 230 million years ago, in the Triassic, and was a two-legged predator with curved, sharp teeth and clawed hands for grabbing prey.

Fun facts

  • In its time dinosaurs were still a minority; most big animals were relatives of crocodiles and other reptiles.
  • Scientists still debate where it fits in the dinosaur family tree, because it mixes features of several early groups.

Who lived alongside it

Dinosaurs found in the same rock formation as Herrerasaurus (Ischigualasto), 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
Not yet classified
Family
Herrerasauridae
When it lived
227.3–237 million years ago
Geologic stages
Carnian
Named by
Reig, 1963
Fossil occurrences
11 sites

Countries with fossils

  • Argentina

Data from Paleobiology Database and Wikidata