Saurolophus and a Giant New Pterosaur

Saurolophus and a new Giant Pterosaur

(This is Saurolophus angustirostris.)

Saurolophus is a genus of Hadrosaur or Duck Billed dinosaur.  Well, they WERE a genus.  Of course they are now extinct.  This is a very interesting dinosaur because there are two species.  One in Alberta, Canada and another in far away Mongolia.  This dinosaur lived when the continents were no longer connected in the Late Cretaceous.   Yet the two speices with many similarities lived across an ocean from each other.  And there was no land bridge between Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous for land animals to use to cross over to a different continent.  

The two species include Saurolophus osborni and Saurolophus angustirostris.   The osborni species lived in North America and the angustirostris lived in Mongolia and China.  In fact, it appears that Saurolophus angustirostris was the most abundant Hadrosaur in Asia back in the Late Cretaceous.  

Size differences were significant.  The Asian species, seen in the drawing up top, was up to 43 feet or 13 meters long.  The North American species was only 27 feet or 8.2 meters long.  It probably weighed around 3 tons.  In comparison the Asian species may have weighed up to 11 or more tons.  This means that the European species, Saurolophus angustirostris, must have weighed more than a 9 ton Tyrannosaurus rex.  Of course, T. rex lived in North America at the same time.  It may have preyed on the much smaller Saurolophus osborni.  

The Asian species, Saurolophus angustirostris, would have had to deal with Asian predatory dinosaurs.  In fact, there is some evidence that T. rex invaded North American but came from Asia.  More likely it was a T. rex ancestor that came from Asia.  T. rex closely resembles Tarbosaurus, an Asian Tyrannosaur.  (I need to draw a Tarabosaurus sometime.)

The crest of hadrosaurs were often hollow and it is thought that the crest may have been a sounding chamber for making calls to other members of the species.  Saurolophus' crest connected to its sinuses so maybe they were involved in breathing or something like that.  

In the drawing you see a pair of huge Pterosaurs.  This is a new discoverey and currently is still unnamed.  It lived in the Mongolia area of the Late Cretaceous and may well have preyed on baby dinosaurs.  So we see a mother Saurolophus angustirostris guarding the nest as her chicks are hatching.  This newly discoverd Pterosaur had a wingspan of 36 feet and, when standing, was as tall as a fully grown bull giraffe.  Since Mongolia was not an area with lots of water nearby, it really is hypothesized that this giant Pterosaur fed on baby dinosaurs and possibly smaller dinosaurs, and small mammals when it could catch them.  

NOTE:  This top drawing is found, in printable form, by clicking on the Paleontology button or the All Printables button up at the top of the page.  Scroll down the drop down menu for the drawing.  New drawings are found at the bottom of the lists.   There is a similar and more well known Hadrosaur called Parasaurolophus so I have posted a few older drawings of it below.   Older drawings are further up the lists.   By the way, to my English readers.... Since this top drawing is of a dinosaur found in Mongolia and China, I am posting this in Chinese as well.  The first picture below is of a Saurolophus skull from the BYU Geology Department. 

Saurolophus Skull from Brigham Young Univeristy Geology Department display case.

(I wasn't aware of this species of Hadrosaur until I saw this skull earlier this week.)

Parasaurolophus at the Watering Hole

(Parasaurolophus had a much larger crest.)

Parasaurolophus in front of a Volcano

Parasurolphus Mates

Parasaurolophus Female

(Females are thought to have had smaller crests in this species.)