Edmontosaurus is a hadosaurid ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Canada and the United States of America. It was named in 1917 by Lawrence Lambe. It is one of the most studied ornithopods, and it was also a wastebasket taxon, as 3 formerly distinct dinosaurs, Anatotitan, Anatosaurus, and Trachodon, have become species directly related to this genus.
Physiology[]
Edmontosaurus represented the generic hadrosaur, an ornithopod with a bulky body, long forelimbs ending in hoof-like hands, long, muscular hindlimbs, a moderately long tail, a thick neck, and a large head with a duck-like beak. However, unlike hadrosaurs closely related to it, one species, Edmontosaurus regalis, did not have a bony crest, but rather a fleshy comb of skin and scales; the other species, Edmontosaurus annectens, bore no crest at all. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin, with a row of crocodile-like scutes running down its back.
Diet[]
Edmontosaurus was an herbivore, feeding on leaves, twigs, pinecones, and pine needles. Its wide beak was used to clamp on branches and strip off all their leaves, while the many teeth in the back of its mouth would grind together, processing the leaves.
Ecology[]
Edmontosaurus regularly walked on all four limbs, but when needed, it would stand on its 2 legs to run at swift speeds or to feed at different heights. As well as this, it would have lived in herds (mainly for protection against predators), and would have migrated from place to place if food was low. As a large herbivore, it would have been frequently attacked by large predators such as tyrannosaurs; an interesting thing to note is that after an Edmontosaurus survived an attack from a Tyrannosaurus, the bone around the damaged area started to heal, proving that the theropod was a predator and not an obligate scavenger like it was assumed to be for more than a decade. Some individuals were able to grow to large sizes and were generally safe from the theropod's jaws; however, this was rare, as the ornithopods had somewhat frequently fell victim to predator attacks, changes in environment, and disease.
In popular culture[]
Edmontosaurus was first introduced to the public in the 1925 movie, The Lost World. Since then, it has appeared in movies like Fantasia and The Land Before Time and documentaries like Walking with Dinosaurs , where it is shown as a harmless, skittish ornithopod that could easily fall prey to theropods such as Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Despite this, it is commonly overshadowed in other pieces of media by its long-crested relative, Parasaurolophus.