Edmontosaurus
PALAEONTOLOGICAL RECORD
Edmontosaurus, often colloquially and historically known as Anatosaurus or Anatotitan, is a genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It contains two known species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian age of the Cretaceous period 73 million years ago, while those of E. annectens were found in the same geographic region from rocks dated to the end of the Maastrichtian age, 66 million years ago. Edmontosaurus was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs ever to exist, and lived alongside dinosaurs like Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus shortly before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
DISCOVERY
Found in North America throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
DIETARY PROFILE
Efficient bulk-feeder across wide plains.
NOTABLE PALAEONTOLOGY FACTS
- One of the few species where mummified scale and skin impressions have been entirely preserved.
- They could run efficiently on two legs to escape danger, dropping to four to graze.
HOLLYWOOD INACCURACIES
- In real life, they possessed a fleshy nasal comb like a rooster, missing in earlier Jurassic park cloned versions.
