Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus was a plant-eating dinosaur which lived during 76-74 million years ago (late Cretaceous). Discovered in 1922 by the Canadian scientist William Parks in Alberta, Canada. The first fossil was a skull which actually, defines the specie of Parasaurolophus. His crest maybe was used to release sounds and every different kind of hadrosaurids released different sounds. They may have used the sound to attract females or to communicate with the other Parasaurolophus. There aren't so many fossils of Parasaurolophs but they were saved very well and that's the reason because they are so popular. The greatest part of skeletons are in their full size, big adults so it isn't so easy to describe their growth.

This dinosaurs' name means near crested lizard. It belonged to the hadrosaurid family known for the bizarre form of their heads. His nearest cousin was Charonosaurus located in China. Parasauroloph is separated in three species: Parasaurolophus walkeri, Parasaurolophus tubicen and Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus. Each specie had a different size oh their crest so we think different species released different sound.Parasaurolophus was about 7.5 m and weighed 2600 kilos. The size was depended on the kind too. There were three species, and each had their own characteristics. This dinosaur could walk with two or four legs, but ran with his muscular, two legs, like the other hadrosaurids. His tail stayed up to help him run. Hadrosaurids had a lot of teeth (about 500) and we think he chewed very well. We don't had so much information for their babies, but a few skeletons tell us that his crest grew very fast and took a year to the adult size so Parasauroloph had a very fast growth. There's an other question to the scientists to: Did parasaurolophus had a skin connecting the neck and the crest directly? Probably not, because it would made harder for his head to move, but we never exclude this possibility.