Maiasaura
Maiasaura was a large, plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur. Maiasaura was the first dinosaur which was found alongside its young, eggs, and nests. This suggests that Maiasaura nurtured its young.
| Maiasaura Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
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| Maiasaura skeleton | |
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Fossil
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| Genus: | Maiasaura
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| Binomial name | |
| Maiasaura peeblesorum | |
About Maiasaura
Maiasaura lived about 80 to 65 million years ago in the Upper Cretaceous period. It ate plants, leaves and berries. Its name Maiasaura means “Good Mother Lizard”. The name refers to the find of nests with eggs, embryos and young animals, in a nesting colony. These showed that Maiasaura fed its young while they were in the nest. It was the first time such evidence was got for a dinosaur.
Fully grown Maiasaura measured about 9 metres long, 2-2.5 metres tall and weighed around 1800 kg.
Where they lived
Maiasaursa fossils have been found in Montana, United States, and Alberta, Canada.[1]
Maiasaura Media
Skull cast, Royal Ontario Museum
Size comparison with human
Reconstructed cast by Jack Horner of a Maiasaura emerging from its egg
Cast of a juvenile skeleton
Life restorations of an adult and juvenile
Reconstruction of a nest with eggs
Illustration of a herd of Maiasaura walking along a creekbed, as found in the semi-arid Two Medicine Formation fossil bed. This region was characterized by volcanic ash layers and conifer, fern and horsetail vegetation.
References
- ↑ McFeeters, Bradley D.; Evans, David C.; Ryan, Michael J.; Maddin, Hillary C. (2021-03-01). "First occurrence of Maiasaura (Dinosauria, Hadrosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Oldman Formation of southern Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 58 (3): 286–296. Bibcode:2021CaJES..58..286M. doi:10.1139/cjes-2019-0207. ISSN 0008-4077. S2CID 233851376.