Dinosaurs / Cretaceous / Lambeosaurus
Lambeosaurus
Cretaceous LAM-bee-oh-SAWR-us, “Lambe's lizard”
Lambeosaurus was a prominent crested duck-billed dinosaur that flourished during the Late Cretaceous in Alberta, Canada. Known from numerous well-preserved skeletons, it gave its name to the hollow-crested subfamily Lambeosaurinae. The animal possessed a striking hatchet-like crest on top of its skull, formed by the premaxilla and nasal bones, with a forward-pointing lobe and a backward-pointing spine. Air flowed through internal looping chambers within the crest, suggesting it functioned as a resonance organ for vocalisation as well as a visual display structure. Reaching lengths of over nine metres, Lambeosaurus fed on tough fibrous vegetation such as conifers, ferns, and flowering plants using batteries of hundreds of constantly replacing teeth. It was capable of feeding on all fours but could rear up or walk on two legs to reach higher browse.
Its distinctive hatchet-shaped cranial crest differed noticeably in shape and size between juveniles and adults.
Where and when
Lambeosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 76.5 to 75 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Dinosaur Park Formation.
The numbers
Length 9.3 m (estimates run from 9 to 9.5 m). Mass about 3.7 t. Hip height about 3 m. That is 5.5 human-lengths, or 0.83 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.