Corythosaurus

Corythosaurus is a genus of duck-billed dinosaur in the hadrosaurid family, within the subfamily Lambeosaurinae. It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 77 to 75 million years ago, in western North America. It is best known for its tall, helmet-like crest on the skull, a distinctive feature of the genus.

Discovery and naming: The genus Corythosaurus was named by Lawrence Lambe in 1914 from fossil material found in Alberta, Canada. The name means helmeted lizard, referring to the crest, while the species name casuarius alludes to the cassowary, whose casque resembles Corythosaurus’s crest. The holotype and numerous partial skeletons have made it one of the best-documented hadrosaurs.

Description: Corythosaurus was a large herbivore that could walk on two legs or four. It reached about 9 to 10 meters in length and weighed around 3 to 4 metric tons. It possessed a long, broad beak and a dental battery of hundreds of teeth for processing tough vegetation. The most conspicuous feature is the elongated, hollow crest on the skull, which likely aided vocal resonance and display.

Paleobiology: Like other hadrosaurs, Corythosaurus fed on a variety of plants and could chew with its complex teeth arrangement. The crest probably functioned in social behavior, species recognition, and sound production. Isotopic and wear-pattern studies suggest they may have lived in herds, moving together as a social group.

Habitat and distribution: Fossils have been found in western North America, especially Alberta’s Dinosaur Park Formation and Montana’s Judith River Formation, dating to the Campanian. Environments were floodplains with conifers and flowering plants, and Corythosaurus shared its habitat with other hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and predators such as tyrannosaurs.