Corythosaurus was a 30 foot long hadrosaurine dinosaur.
Facts[]
Corythosaurus traveled in herds, and was one of the favorite prey for animals like tyrannosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex.Its name means helmet lizard. It could breath through its helmet/crest. It was one of the animals that used Herding and Escape for its defence. The crest on its head was made of solid bone. It lived during the late Cretaceous period.
Full definition[]
Corythosaurus /ˌkɒrɨθɵˈsɔrəs/: is a genus of duck-billed dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period, about 76.5-74.8 million years ago. It lived in what is now North America. Its name means "helmet lizard", derived from Greek. It was named and described in 1914 by Barnum Brown, and classified as a trachodontid. Corythosaurus has an estimated length of 9 metres (30 ft), and has a skull, including the crest, that is 70.8 centimetres (27.9 in.) tall.
It is known from many complete specimens, including a nearly complete holotype found by Brown in 1912. The holotype skeleton is only missing the last section of the tail, and part of the forelimbs, but was preserved with impressions of polygonal scales. The specimen was found among marine sediments, and around it were preserved elements of the bivalve Unio, and an indeterminate turtle. The preserved sections of the forelimbs include the scapulae, coracoids, humeri, ulnae, radii and phalanges.
In 1917, two greatly-preserved specimens of Corythosaurus were being shipped to Arthur Smith Woodward in England. They were sent to the bottom of the ocean when their carrier was sunk.
million years ago. It lived in what is now North America. Its name means "helmet lizard", derived from Greek. It was named and described in 1914 by Barnum Brown, and classified as a trachodontid. Corythosaurus has an estimated length of 9 metres (30 ft), and has a skull, including the crest, that is 70.8 centimetres (27.9 in) tall.
It is known from many complete specimens, including a nearly complete holotype found by Brown in 1912. The holotype skeleton is only missing the last section of the tail, and part of the forelimbs, but was preserved with impressions of polygonal scales. The specimen was found among marine sediments, and around it were preserved elements of the bivalve Unio, and an indeterminate turtle. The preserved sections of the forelimbs include the scapulae, coracoids, humeri, ulnae, radii, and phalanges.
In 1917, two greatly-preserved specimens of Corythosaurus were being shipped to Arthur Smith Woodward in England. They were sent to the bottom of the ocean when their carrier was sunk.
Many species of Corythosaurus were known before 1975, but in that year, Peter Dodson studied and described many gender-related crest traits. These traits showed that the many species which were distinguished by crest shape and size were likely synonyms. Dodson found that all the species were the same, but now C. intermedius is recognized as valid. Corythosaurus is now thought to be a lambeosaurine, related to Nipponosaurus, Velafrons, Hypacrosaurus, and Olorotitan.
Corythosaurus is known from many skulls with tall crests. The crests resemble the crests of the cassowary and a Corinthian helmet. Originally, the crests were thought to be used as a snorkel, to breathe through when swimming. The problem with that was that there were no holes in the top of the crest to allow air through. Later, they were thought to be air reserves, to breathe when underwater. A problem with that theory was that underwater, unless the animal had some way of pressurizing the air, the lungs would not be able to expand. Currently, the most likely scenario is that the crest was used for vocalization. Like a trombone, the air would travel through many chambers in the crest, and then get amplified when Corythosaurus exhaled. It was thought to be aquatic, based on the misidentification of foot padding, that was thought to be webbing.
Based on the climate of the Late Cretaceous, Benson et al. (2010) guessed that Corythosaurus would have been a selective feeder, eating only the juiciest fruits and youngest leaves. Corythosaurus specimens have been preserved with its last meal in its chest cavity. Inside the cavity were remains of conifer needles, seeds, twigs, and fruits, meaning that Corythosaurus probably fed on all of these.
Corythosaurus is well-known from two formations of Alberta, the Oldman and Dinosaur Park formations. In the Dinosaur Park Formation, along with the Judith River, and Mesaverde formations, and also the Wind River Basin and the Wheatland County areas, Corythosaurus was found associated with Centrosaurus. Many taxa were found alongside Corythosaurus is the formations, and the only two large predators found in the same area as Corythosaurus were Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus.
In Other Media[]
In books[]
Corythosaurus has appeared in many different books and is one of the more famous hadrosaurs, ( the other being Parasaurolophus).