| ARTICLE | GALLERY |
| Corythosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
| |
| Corythosaurus casuarius | |
| Conservation status | |
Fossil
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Family: | Hadrosauridae |
| Subfamily: | Lambeosaurinae |
| Genus: | Corythosaurus Brown, 1914 |
| Species | |
Corythosaurus is a genus of ornithopod. It was a large plant-eating Duck Billed Dinosaur. It was about 30-33 feet (9-10 meters) long, 6.6 feet (2 meters) tall at the hips, and weighed 3-5 tons.
Corythosaurus may have used air passage in its crest to make booming calls.
Etymology
Like other hadrosaurs, it had a hollow, bony crest on top of its long head in the shape of a helmet flattened on the sides (Corythosaurus means "helmet lizard"). Its likely functions were sound projection and recognition. Males had larger crests than females and juveniles.
Locomotion
Corythosaurus was like other hadrosaurids, and could move on both two legs and all fours (meaning that it was bipedal and quadrupedal), as shown by footprints of related animals. It had a long tail stiffened by ossified tendons that prevented it from drooping. The hands had four fingers, lacking the innermost finger of the generalized five-fingered tetrapod hand, while the second, third, and fourth fingers were bunched together and bore hooves, suggesting the animal could have used the hands for support. The fifth finger was free and could be used to manipulate objects. Each foot had only the three central toes.
References
Horner J.R; Weishampel D.B. & Forster C.A. 2004. "Hadrosauridae". In Weishampel, David B; Dodson, Peter & Osmólska, Halszka (eds) The Dinosauria (2nd ed). Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 438–463. ISBN 0-520-24209-2
In popular culture
- Corythosaurus appeared in Jurassic Park III the clone's had a greyish body yellow patches and orange red crests. Corythosaurus also appeared in The Lost World: Jurassic Park on a sheet which is shown too be a early prototype Corythosaurus clone by InGen. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, it is known that Corythosaurus was subject to cruelty at some point in the past, although it is unknown if there are any surviving populations left it is possible that Corythosaurus was saved offscreen.
- Corythosaurus appeared in the series called Dinosaur Train.
- Corythosaurus appears in Dino Dan, Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures & Dino Dana as a Rare character.
- Corythosaurus appears in Lego Jurassic World as an unlockable character.
