Parasaurolophus walkeri PAR-uh-saw-ROL-oh-fus
"Near-crested lizard"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Parasaurolophus 10 m (33 ft) long
6 people holding hands
- Length
- 10 m (33 ft) — About 10 m long, ~2.5 tonnes — known for its long backward-curving crest.
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (76–73 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Alberta, Canada · New Mexico · Utah
- Food
- Herbivore — Tough plants — pine needles, leaves, twigs, all ground up by dental batteries of hundreds of teeth.
Parasaurolophus had a long hollow crest growing back from the top of its head. The crest contained tubes that connected to the nasal passages, and when researchers built scale models and blew through them they produced low foghorn sounds — proof that the crest worked as a resonator. Parasaurolophus probably called to other members of its herd across long distances.
What we know
- Long hollow crest with internal tubes connecting to the nostrils.
- Acoustic models show the crest could produce deep foghorn-like calls.
- Hadrosaur — closely related to Edmontosaurus, Maiasaura, and Corythosaurus.
- Dental battery of about a thousand teeth, used to grind tough plants.
What we guess
- Exact call pitch and pattern — depends on soft tissue we can't reconstruct.
- Whether males and females had different crests (sexual dimorphism is suggested but unproven).
- How fast the young grew — likely fast, like other hadrosaurs.