Ferrisaurus the Iron Dinosaur called Buster

Ferrisaurus the Iron Dinosaur

Ferrisaurus was a protoceratopsian dinosaur.  This type of dino evolved before bigger dinos like Styrachosaurus and Triceratops.  It was the size of a bighorn sheep and probably could walk on all fours or on its back legs.  It was nicknamed Buster and it was found far up North in British Columbia, Canada.  It is the only known dinosaur endemic to B.C.  It was named Ferrisaurus because of the old Native American nickname for the railroad the Iron Horse.  The Genus name is Ferrisaurus and the species name is sustutensis.  So Ferrisaurus sustutensis means Iron Lizard fom the Sustut River.  

Let me explain... Fe = Ferris or the element iron.  Fe is the symbol on the periodic table for Iron.  Ferris is the Latin name for Iron.  So you are asking, "What is he talking about?"  I need to tell you that Ferrisaurus was found next to a railroad track . . . way up North in British Columbia.  

The skeleton or I should say the fossilized bones were not a complete skeleton.  But there were enough to determine that this was a protoceratopsian.  That type of dinosaur is also called the Leptoceratopsids.  Estimated size is 1.75 meters long and it weighed around 150 kg.  That is 5 feet 9 inches long and a weight of 330 lbs.  

Ferrisaurus was a plant eater or herbivore with a large parrot-like beak for croping plant matter.  It lived around the time of T. rex and probably was sometimes prey for T. rex.  It lived at the same time as its larger cousins like Triceratops and Pentaceratops so it did not evolve into the big horned dinosaurs. . . it was a contemporary animal species.  It is weird but it was a dinosaur that evolved several million years before the big Ceratopsian horned dinos but it never evolved large size and it also never evolved horns or an impressive huge armored frill.  I guess it DID evolve the two short horn-like projections on the side of its face.  Still, compared to the meter long brow horns of Triceratops... the Ferrsaurus' defenses seem pitiful.  It was small enough that it probably just hid in the bushes when Tyrannosaurus came around. 

By the way, during the late Cretaceous Period there really was an uptick in volcanic activity.  The Pterosaur in the sky is a Pteranodon and they also lived during this time period of life on Earth.

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