Corythosaurus casuarius koh-RITH-oh-SOR-us
"Helmet lizard"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Corythosaurus 9 m (29.5 ft) long
6 people holding hands
- Length
- 9 m (29.5 ft) — About 9 m long, ~3 tonnes — known for its rounded cassowary-like crest.
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (77–75 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Alberta, Canada
- Food
- Herbivore — Tough plants, probably including conifer needles and ferns — chewed by a dental battery.
Corythosaurus had a tall rounded crest shaped like a Greek warrior’s helmet — actually a cassowary-like dome packed with hollow nasal passages. Like Parasaurolophus, the crest worked as a resonating chamber to produce distinctive calls. Males may have had taller crests than females, but proving that requires comparing many specimens.
What we know
- Tall, flat, helmet-shaped crest packed with hollow nasal tubes.
- Many complete skeletons known, some with skin impressions preserved.
- Lived alongside Gorgosaurus, Centrosaurus, and Lambeosaurus in the Dinosaur Park Formation.
- Closely related to Hypacrosaurus and Lambeosaurus.
What we guess
- Whether crest shape differed between males and females.
- Pitch and pattern of the calls produced by the crest.
- Whether young Corythosaurus had different-shaped crests as they grew.