Dinosaurs A to Z
Hadrosauridae

Prosaurolophus prohsor-ROLUHFUHS

"before"

Generic ornithopod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Prosaurolophus 8.5 m (27.9 ft) long
as long as 5 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ornithopod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Prosaurolophus
Length
8.5 m (27.9 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (75.7–74.1 Mya)
Place
North America · Alberta, Canada · Montana, USA
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Hadrosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Cerapoda Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Duck-billed dinosaurs with tooth batteries.

Prosaurolophus (; meaning “before Saurolophus”, in comparison to the later dinosaur with a similar head crest) is a genus of hadrosaurid (or duck-billed) dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is known from the remains of at least 25 individuals, including skulls and skeletons, but this remains obscure. Its fossils have been found in the late Campanian-aged Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, and the roughly contemporaneous Two Medicine Formation in Montana, dating to around 75.7 to 74.1 million years ago. Its most recognizable feature is a small solid crest formed by the nasal bones, sticking up in front of the eyes. The type species is P. maximus, described by American paleontologist Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History in 1916. A second species, P. blackfeetensis, was described by Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in 1992.

What we know

  • Named by Brown, 1916.
  • Body length estimated at about 8.5 m.
  • Fossils found in North America and Alberta, Canada.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Prosaurolophus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.