Brachylophosaurus
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| Brachylophosaurus canadensis Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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| Brachylophosaurus canadensis Sternberg, 1953 |
Brachylophosaurus (pronounced /brəˌkɪləfəˈsɔrəs/ or /ˌbrækiˌloʊfəˈsɔrəs/ BRAK-ee-LOH-fo-SAWR-us) meaning "short-crested lizard" (Greek brachy = short + lophos = crest + sauros = lizard, referring to its small crest) was a mid-sized member of the hadrosaurid family of dinosaurs. It is known from several skeletons and bonebed material from the Judith River Formation of Montana and the Oldman Formation of Alberta (Weishampel and Horner, 1990), so lived roughly 75 million years ago.
It was first described by Charles M. Sternberg in 1953, on a skull and partial skeleton at first thought to belong to Gryposaurus (or Kritosaurus as it was known at the time). This animal is notable for its bony crest, which forms a flat, paddle-like plate over the top of the skull. Some researchers have suggested it was used for pushing contests (Weishampel and Horner, 1990), but it may not have been strong enough for this. Also notable are the unusually long forelimbs.
Jack Horner described a second species in 1988 from Montana, B. goodwini, but later work indicated that the differences were probably not enough to justify the second species (see for example Prieto-Marquez, 2005).
[edit] Recent Discoveries
In 1994, amateur paleontologist Nate Murphy discovered an immaculate, complete and uncrushed brachylophosaur skeleton which he dubbed 'Elvis'.
Incredibly, more impressive finds lay ahead for Murphy and his team from the Judith River Dinosaur Institute. In 2000, 'Leonardo', a fully articulated and partially mummified skeleton of a subadult brachylophosaur was discovered (Murphy et al., 2002). [1] It is considered one of the most spectacular dinosaur finds ever, and was included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
They subsequently excavated 'Roberta,' an almost complete gracile skeleton, and 'Peanut', a partially preserved juvenile with some skin impressions.
In May 2008, Steven Cowan, public-relations coordinator at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, discovered a Brachylophosaurus skeleton subsequently dubbed "Marco" in the Judith River formation.
[edit] References
Horner, J.R. 1988. A new hadrosaur (Reptilia, Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 8(3): 314-321.
Murphy, N., D. Trexler, and M. Thompson. 2002. Exceptional soft-tissue preservation in a mummified ornithopod dinosaur from the Campanian lower Judith River Formation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22 (Supplement to Number 3), Abstracts of Papers, Sixty-Second Annual Meeting, p. 91A.
Prieto-Marquez, A. 2005. New information on the cranium of Brachylophosaurus, with a revision of its phylogenetic position. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(1): 144-156.
Sternberg, C.M. 1953. A new hadrosaur from the Oldman Formation of Alberta: Discussion of nomenclature. Canadian Department of Resource Development Bulletin. 128: 1-12.
Weishampel, D.B., and J.R. Horner. 1990. Hadrosauridae. In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.). The Dinosauria. University of California Press: Berkeley, pp. 534-561.
[edit] External links
- The Judith River Dinosaur Institute
- Brachylophosaurus from SkeletalDrawing.com
- Brachylophosaurus at DinoData
