Question 1

How do you say Prosaurolophus?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus is pronounced pro-SORE-oh-LOF-us. Break it into four chunks: 'pro' like the word pro athlete, 'SORE' like a sore muscle, 'oh' like the letter O, and 'LOF-us' which rhymes with 'cough-us.' The stress falls on the SORE and LOF syllables. A good memory trick is to say the phrase 'pro SORE oh LOF us' slowly three times out loud, and it will stick. The Natural History Museum in London confirms this as the standard pronunciation used by scientists.

Question 2

What does Prosaurolophus mean?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus means 'before the crested lizard' in Greek. The name is made up of three roots: 'pro' meaning 'before,' 'sauro' meaning 'lizard,' and 'lophus' meaning 'crest.' Paleontologist Barnum Brown chose this name in 1916 because he believed Prosaurolophus was an evolutionary predecessor of Saurolophus, a similar hadrosaur with a much more developed nasal crest. The 'before' in the name is essentially a label saying this dinosaur represents an earlier, less elaborate stage in the evolution of crested hadrosaurs.

Question 3

How big was Prosaurolophus?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus was a genuinely large dinosaur. The type species, P. maximus, grew to about 28 feet (8.5 meters) long and weighed around 3,500 kilograms, roughly the same weight as two large hippopotamuses. The species name 'maximus' is Latin for 'greatest,' which tells you something about the impression this animal made on the scientists who first found its remains. Despite that impressive size, it was a plant-eater, not a predator.

Question 4

What did Prosaurolophus eat?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus was a herbivore and ate only plants. Like all hadrosaurs, it had a dental battery made up of hundreds of tightly packed grinding teeth in its jaws, constantly replaced as the front teeth wore down. This tooth battery worked like a biological food processor, grinding tough leaves, pine needles, ferns, and flowering plants with remarkable efficiency. Scientists think large hadrosaurs like Prosaurolophus spent a big portion of each day grazing just to fuel their massive bodies.

Question 5

When did Prosaurolophus live?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, between approximately 75.7 and 74.1 million years ago. That is roughly 9 to 10 million years before the mass extinction that ended the age of non-bird dinosaurs. During this time, western North America was a warm, low-lying coastal plain bordering the Western Interior Seaway, a shallow inland sea that stretched from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico.

Question 6

Where did Prosaurolophus live?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus fossils come from two main locations: the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada, and the Two Medicine Formation in Montana, USA. Both areas were once part of a lush, subtropical coastal plain along the western shore of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous. The Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta is one of the richest dinosaur fossil sites in the world and has produced remains from at least 25 individual Prosaurolophus specimens.

Question 7

What was the bump on Prosaurolophus's head?

Accepted Answer

The bump on Prosaurolophus's head was a small, solid crest formed by the nasal bones, sitting right in front of its eyes. Unlike the hollow tube-like crests of Parasaurolophus or Corythosaurus, this crest was completely solid bone. Scientists think it may have been brightly colored in life and served as a visual signal for species recognition within a herd. It is notably smaller and less developed than the spike-crest of its relative Saurolophus, which is exactly what you would expect if Prosaurolophus represents an earlier stage in the evolution of hadrosaur head ornamentation.

Question 8

Is Prosaurolophus related to Saurolophus?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Prosaurolophus and Saurolophus are close relatives, both classified in the subfamily Hadrosaurinae. The name Prosaurolophus literally means 'before Saurolophus,' reflecting the scientific view that Prosaurolophus was a direct ancestor or close evolutionary predecessor of Saurolophus. Saurolophus appeared a few million years after Prosaurolophus and had a significantly larger, more developed nasal crest. Comparing the two side by side, you can see a clear progression from the modest bump of Prosaurolophus to the more dramatic bony spike of Saurolophus.

Question 9

Who discovered Prosaurolophus?

Accepted Answer

Prosaurolophus was discovered and described in 1916 by Barnum Brown, a paleontologist who worked for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Brown is one of the most celebrated fossil hunters in history, and he is also the scientist who found the first scientifically described Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in 1902. He named the dinosaur Prosaurolophus maximus, with 'maximus' being Latin for 'greatest,' in honor of its large size.

Question 10

How many Prosaurolophus fossils have been found?

Accepted Answer

Scientists have found the remains of at least 25 individual Prosaurolophus specimens, including skulls and partial skeletons from animals at different growth stages. That is a relatively large sample for a dinosaur, and it has given paleontologists a lot to work with. Having fossils from juveniles all the way to adults has allowed researchers to trace how the animal's nasal crest developed as it aged and to better understand its social behavior and biology.

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