Parasaurolophus

The “trombone-crested” Parasaurolophus is one of the most distinctive hadrosaurs we know of. This has been reinforced by appearances in popular media, like Fantasia, the Jurassic Park/World franchise, Disney’s Dinosaur and several others. Yet despite excellent media representation, Parasaurolophus specimens are less common than many of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs it shared its habitats with.

Perhaps because of the scarcity of specimens, the naming history of Parasaurolophus is also a lot more straightforward than many classic dinosaur names from the westward expansion era of North American paleontology. The type specimen of Parasaurolophus walkeri (ROM 768), found in Canada, is still the best adult specimen of Parasaurolophus to date. Luckily that specimen is pretty great, missing its legs below the knee, along with most of its tail. But otherwise it’s remarkably complete, including the tubular crest on its head.

Other partial specimens, with somewhat differently shaped crests, have been found elsewhere in North America. P. cyrtocristatus, for example, lived in the southwestern United States and possessed a shorter tube-crest. A third species, P. tubicens (no skeletal here, sorry), has been found in New Mexico, and had more complex internal nasal passages than the other species of Parasaurolophus.

An even more complete specimen of Parasaurolophus was found in Utah in 2009, although this was clearly a juvenile specimen, with its crest just starting to develop, and measuring a mere 2.2 m (7 feet) from beak to tail tip. Given its juvenile stature, it hasn’t yet been assigned to any of the existing species of Parasaurolophus, although it’s undoubtedly the cutest specimen found so far.