Citipati

  • Pronounced: Chit-tee-pah-tay
  • Origin: Mongolia
  • Discovered in 1993
  • Lived: Late Cretaceous – 81-75 million years ago
  • Size: height - 1.88m, length - 2.47m
  • Name means: Funeral pyre lord

Citipati fossils have demonstrated that some dinosaurs sat on their eggs in a ‘nest’ much like many birds do today. This nesting behaviour also indicates that Citipati had feathers. Like birds today, feathers are used to help with incubating their eggs. 

Research has shown that other species of oviraptors*, similar to Citipati, laid blue eggs! *Oviraptor: a group of theropods (dinosaurs that walked on 2 legs) that had toothless parrot-like beaks and crested skulls. Oviraptor means ‘egg thief.’ Originally it was thought these dinosaurs stole and ate eggs from other dinosaurs (because fossils were discovered at nest sites with eggs). But the more recent theory is that these dinosaurs were likely caring for their own eggs. 

Citipati is thought to have been an omnivore.

Diabloceratops

  • Pronounced: Dee-ab-low-sera-tops
  • Origin: USA
  • Discovered in 1998
  • Lived: Late Cretaceous – 79.5 million years ago
  • Size: height - 2.62m, length - 5.8m
  • Name means: Devil-horned face

‘Diablo’ comes from the latin word for ‘devil’ and it is named for the two long spikes on top of its head. Its large neck frill is made of bone, and it had a beaked mouth for feeding on plants.

Many images depict Diabloceratops to have ‘eye spots’ on their neck frill. ‘Eye spots’ are a colouration pattern that can either make an animal appear bigger than it is, or to make it look like it is always watching, making it difficult for predators to sneak up on them.

Ceratopsid: a group of herbivorous dinosaurs that are characterized by their beak and bony frill on the back of their skull. To date, only one specimen of Diabloceratops has been found.

Edmontonia

  • Pronounced: Ed-mon-tone-ee-ah
  • Origin: Canada
  • Discovered in 1915
  • Lived: Late Cretaceous – 76-74 million years ago
  • Size: height - 2.16m, length - 7.07m
  • Name means: Named after where it was discovered - Edmonton

Heavily armoured, Edmontonia had ridged bony plates called osteoderms over its back and spikes down its sides. These were used for both defence against predators and for display.

The powerful legs and sturdy feet of Edmontonia indicate that it potentially moved slowly through habitats foraging for plants. The robust skeletal structure and defensive armour suggests it relied on physical defence over agility.

Two fossil specimens were found with the armour and spikes preserved in position, so scientists are pretty sure what it looked like.

Edmontosaurus

  • Pronounced: Ed-mon-toe-sor-us
  • Origin: Canada and USA
  • Discovered in 1912
  • Lived: Late Cretaceous – 73-66 million years ago
  • Name means: Lizard of Edmonton
  • Edmontosaurus is part of our fossil dig

Fossils can tell us a lot about dinosaurs. But finding a full dinosaur is not very common so putting them together is like doing a jigsaw with missing pieces.

Edmontosaurus was one of the largest of the group of dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Hadrosaurs were large, plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaurs.

A very rare ‘dinosaur mummy’ of an Edmontosaurus was discovered. This specimen had preserved skin, muscle and tissue. The fossilised skin showed that Edmontosaurus was covered in round scales with larger pentagonal scales scattered through. Twigs, conifer needles and seeds have been found in the stomach of a fossilised Edmontosaurus which confirmed this species was a herbivore.

Iguanodon

  • Pronounced: Ig-wah-no-don
  • Origin: Belgium, England, France and Germany
  • Discovered in 1820s
  • Lived: Late Jurassic / Early Cretaceous – 140-110 million years ago
  • Size: height - 2.52m, length - 7.02m
  • Name means: Iguana tooth

The Iguanodon was the first giant prehistoric reptile found to be herbivorous. At the time, most reptiles were thought to eat meat or insects.

The Iguanodon got its name, which means ‘iguana tooth’ because the first fossils found were fossilised teeth which looked like giant versions of iguana teeth.

Ornithopod: meaning ‘bird foot’, are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs, some of which walked on two legs, others on four. Iguanadon is part of this group.

Pachyrhinosaurus

  • Pronounced: Pack-ee-rine-oh-sor-us
  • Origin: Canada and USA
  • Discovered in 1946
  • Lived: Late Cretaceous – 76-74 million years ago
  • Size: height - 1.43m, length - 3.66m
  • Name means: Thick-nosed lizard

Pachyrhinosaurus was part of a group of dinosaurs called ceratopsids. Ceratopsids were horned, frilled dinosaurs that had strong beaks used for stripping vegetation and hundreds of teeth for cutting up plants.

Their thick nose, called a ‘nasal boss’ was thought to be used to fight with other Pachyrhinosaurus to show dominance.

It is thought that Pachyrhinosaurus lived in herds as multiple footprint tracks have been found together.

Stegosaurus

  • Pronounced: Steg-oh-sor-us
  • Origin: China and USA
  • Discovered in 1877
  • Lived: Late Jurassic – 152-145 million years ago
  • Size: height - 1.81m, length - 3.81m (an adult Stegosaurus could grow up to 9m in length)
  • Name means: Roof lizard

Stegosaurus had two distinctive rows of plates along their back. But what were they actually for? Many theories have been proposed including:

  • Protection from predators
  • For display and attracting a mate
  • To help with thermal regulation

A near complete skeleton is helping to answer the question. Scientists can scan the plates, create a model and use knowledge from modern animal bones to calculate if the plates were strong enough to be used for defence.

Did you know the tail spikes on a Stegosaurus are called ‘thagomizers.’ Gary Larson made up this word in one of his ‘The Far Side’ comics in 1982. And since scientists didn’t have another word for the tail spike, it stuck.