Parasaurolophus

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About the Parasaurolophus

Scientists know many things about dinosaurs, but did you know they knew what one sounded like? The Parasaurolophus is one of the most famous Hadrosaurs alongside the Iguanodon and the Edmontosaurus. This dinosaur, like many, had a signature feature, for the Parasaurolophus it was it’s skull. On the top of its head it had a giant backward facing crest, reaching almost 6 feet in length. It’s crest was hollow and allowed this dinosaur to create deep calls; similar to how the elephant seal uses its nose and skin flap to blow air and make loud mating calls. 

Parasaurolophus, like all other Hadrosaurs also had that signature duck bill that ate lower vegetation. Fossils of Parasaurolophus are extremely rare, since paleontologists often find Parasaurolophus fossils in swamps and wetlands the fossils get lost to time. In contrast to the media paleontologists have discovered Parasaurolophus was a fully terrestrial animal. The media has been heavily influenced by paleontologists’ old theory, the snorkel theory. Paleontologists misidentify tissue impressions in mud from fossils and sprouted the theory that parasaurolophus had webbed feet for swimming. The famous Jurassic Park and Jurassic World adopted this theory and solidified the misconstrued image that the Parasaurolophus was a semi-aquatic animal. 

The Parasaurolophus was a giant 3 ton beast standing at 15 feet tall and 30 feet long. This dinosaur was about the size of 2 SUV’s parked end to end, it could squish you instantly. Even though this dinosaur was large it wasn’t very smart, its brain was about the size of a potato. However it didn’t need to be very intelligent to live. It lived in giant herds which allowed the Parasaurolophus to not have to worry about outsmarting predators, and much of its food was low-lying plants that were easy to access. This dinosaur really helps give you a perspective on how giant the dinosaurs were considering they are the average size of a dinosaur.