Saurolophus osborni

Saurolophus osborni was a large solid-crested hadrosaur from the upper Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta. Unlike the long hollow tubes of Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus, its spike-like crest was built mainly from solid nasal bone and projected upward and backward from the skull roof. The nearly complete holotype preserves the animal from skull to tail and made Saurolophus one of the first hadrosaurs known from such an informative skeleton. A second, larger species from Mongolia shows that this genus ranged across Late Cretaceous Asia and North America, although this profile concerns only the Canadian type species.

Its fossils occur between approximately 72.2 and 69.6 million years ago. Values shown here are approximate and reflect the current curated seed dataset.

The skull ended in a broad toothless beak followed by dental batteries containing hundreds of continually replaced teeth. Its narrow solid crest was buttressed by extensions of the frontal and prefrontal bones. Powerful hind limbs, shorter forelimbs with hoof-like fingers and a stiffened tail allowed both four-legged walking and bipedal movement. Ossified tendons reinforced the spine. Skin impressions associated with early specimens show a covering of small scales, while the precise outline and colour of soft tissue around the crest remain unknown.

• Long solid crest formed chiefly by the nasal bones
• Broad keratin-covered beak and dense dental batteries
• Powerful hind limbs and shorter weight-bearing forelimbs
• Hoof-like central fingers with a mobile outer digit
• Ossified tendons reinforcing the back and tail
• Associated skin impressions with small non-overlapping scales

Barnum Brown and an American Museum of Natural History crew discovered the nearly complete skeleton AMNH 5220 beside Alberta's Red Deer River in 1911. Brown named Saurolophus osborni in 1912 and followed it with a detailed skeletal monograph in 1913. The species honours American Museum president Henry Fairfield Osborn. The holotype was prepared as a dramatic panel mount that preserves the side on which the animal lay in the ground. Later skulls, including AMNH 5221 and CMN 8796, allowed Phil Bell to redescribe the crest and braincase in 2011.

Discovery credit: Barnum Brown, American Museum Alberta expedition.

Naming authors: Barnum Brown.

The upper Horseshoe Canyon Formation records river channels, floodplains, swamps and coastal lowlands near the retreating Western Interior Seaway. Conifers, flowering plants and wetland vegetation supplied abundant food. Saurolophus shared the broader formation with Edmontosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, ceratopsians, armoured dinosaurs and tyrannosaurs such as Albertosaurus. Because the formation spans several million years, its complete species list was not one simultaneous community.

Saurolophus cropped plants with its beak and ground them between complex tooth batteries. It normally could walk on four limbs and rear or run bipedally when useful. The crest was conspicuous and may have supported species recognition, visual display or additional soft tissue, but it was not the long hollow resonating tube found in lambeosaurines. Trackways and hadrosaur bonebeds elsewhere support social behaviour in the family, yet the three Canadian specimens alone do not reveal herd size or migration.

• Its crest was a solid bony spike, not a hollow tube like Parasaurolophus.
• The holotype is an almost complete skull and skeleton discovered in 1911.
• Barnum Brown's original panel mount records the skeleton much as it lay in the rock.
• A second Saurolophus species from Mongolia shows a striking Asia–North America connection.

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1. 01
   Paleontology Collections

   American Museum of Natural History

   Open source
2. 02
   A crested dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous

   Barnum Brown · Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 31(14) · 1912

   Open source
3. 03
   The skeleton of Saurolophus, a crested duck-billed dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous

   Barnum Brown · Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 32(19) · 1913

   Open source
4. 04
   Redescription of the skull of Saurolophus osborni Brown 1912 (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae)

   Phil R. Bell · Cretaceous Research 32(1) · 2011

   Open source