Hadrosaurus
Hadrosaurus foulkii
Pronounced:
Had-roh-Saw-rus
Diet:
Herbivore (plant eater)
Name Means:
Big lizard
Length:
33 feet (10 m)
Height:
14 feet (4 m)
Weight:
2 tons (1,900 kilos)
Time:
Late Cretaceous
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in Eastern USA
Hadrosaurus was the
second dinosaur named in
North America and a
whole family of
dinosaurs - hadrosaurs -
was named after it. It
was the first
duck-billed dinosaur
found, and one of the
first on the East Coast
of the U.S. It was a
large plant-eater and is
often shown standing
upright, although it
actually would have
spent most of its time
on all four legs.
The original specimen of
Hadrosaurus was found in the
Cretaceous marls of New Jersey in
1858. Joseph Leidy, an anatomy
professor from Philadelphia,
assembled the skeleton and named it.
Hadrosaurus was large for a
hadrosaur and had a typical
hadrosaur body. Its skull was
typical of non-crested hadrosaurs,
except for a noticeable bump on the
nasal bones that created a
resemblance to a prizefighter with a
broken nose. Hadrosaurus is
sometimes erroneously used as a
generic name for hadrosaurs. |
