Wikijunior:Dinosaurs/Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaur, or a duck-billed dinosaur.

Parasaurolophus may have looked like this.

What did they look like?

They were large quadruped hadrosaurs. They had front legs similar to a horse's and had rigid, straight tails. They are unique among hadrosaurs that they had trombone-like head crests.

What did they eat?

They ate plants and shrubs.

When did they live?

They lived before the time of the K-T extinction, during the Cretaceous time period of the Mesozoic. This was about 76.5–73 million years ago.

Where did they live?

Early depictions showed hadrosaurs swimming in swamps and eating sea grass. However, we now know that hadrosaurs were land-dwelling dinosaurs. They lived in what is now the following areas: Alberta, Canada; New Mexico; Utah.

How were they discovered?

Parasaurolophus were discovered in the year 1920, from a fossil in near Sand Creek along the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada. They were named by a man named William Parks

What do we need to learn?

• Where they actually lived
• Their speed