HYPACROSAURUS
a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur from the Late cretaceous of Canada.
Pronunciation: hi-PAK-ro-SOR-us
Meaning: Nearly the highest ranked lizard
Author/s: Brown (
1913)
Synonyms: See
below
First Discovery: Alberta, Canada
Discovery Chart Position: #105
Hypacrosaurus altispinus
Cheneosaurus tolmanensis (Lambe, 1917)
Magnapaulia? (Prieto-Márquez
et al., 2012)
(Near the highest lizard, with high spines)Etymology
Hypacrosaurus is derived from the Greek "Hypakros" (near the highest/close to the top) and "sauros" (lizard). Barnum Brown described
Hypacrosaurus as "the largest of all known Trachodonts, approaching in size the great carnivorous dinosaur
Tyrannosaurus", meaning it was nearly, but not quite, equal to
Tyrannosaurus rex—the "king" of the tyrant lizards"—in rank and size.
The
species epithet,
altispinus, means "high-spined" and refers to the "extremely high, massive spines" protruding from the top of its back vertebrae.
Discovery
The first fossils of
Hypacrosaurus were discovered in the
Horseshoe Canyon Formation, near Tolman Ferry, Alberta, Canada, by Barnum Brown in 1910.
The
holotype (AMNH 5204) consists of a partial pelvis and some vertebrae.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 71-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 10 meters
Est. max. hip height: 3 meters
Est. max. weight: 2 tons
Diet: Herbivore
Other species
Hypacrosaurus stebingeri, based on MOR 549, was discovered at Badger Creek in the Two Medicine Formation of Glacier County, Montana, and named by Horner and Currie in 1994.
References
• Brown B (1913) "
A new trachodont dinosaur, Hypacrosaurus, from the Edmonton Cretaceous of Alberta".
Bulletin of the AMNH, version 32, article 20.
• Gilmore CW (1914) "
A new ceratopsian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, with note on Hypacrosaurus".
Smithsonian miscellaneous collections, 63(3).
• Lambe LM (1917) "
On Cheneosaurus tolmanensis, a new genus and species of trachodont dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous of Alberta".
The Ottowa Naturalis, Vol.XXX, No.10.
• Gilmore CW (1924) "On the Skull and Skeleton of
Hypacrosaurus, a Helmet-Crested Dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous of Alberta".
Bulletin Canada Geological Survey, Department of Mines, 38:49-64. (Geol. Ser. #43)
• Dodson P (1975) "Taxonomic Implications of Relative Growth in Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurs".
Systematic Zoology 24(1): 37. DOI: 10.2307/2412696
• Weishampel DB, Barrett PM, Coria RA, Le Loueff J, Xu X, Zhao X, Sahni A, Gomani EMP and Noto CN (2004) "Dinosaur distribution" in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Horner JR and Currie PJ (1994) "Embryonic and neonatal morphology and ontogeny of a new species of
Hypacrosaurus (Ornithischia, Lambeosauridae) from Montana and Alberta" in Carpenter, Hirsch and Horner (eds.) "
Dinosaur Eggs and Babies".
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 312-336.
• Reese Barrick R and Showers WJ (January 1995) "Oxygen isotope variability in juvenile dinosaurs (
Hypacrosaurus): Evidence for thermoregulation".
Paleobiology 21(4): 552-560. DOI: 10.1017/S0094837300013531
• Brink KS, Zelenitsky DK, Evans DC and Horner JR (2008) "New subadult
Hypacrosaurus stebingeri skulls and a comparative analysis of allometric crest growth in lambeosaurines".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference: 68th Annual Meeting of the Society-of-Vertebrate-Paleontology, Vol. 28
• Evans DC (June 2010) "Cranial anatomy and systematics of
Hypacrosaurus altispinus, and a comparative analysis of skull growth in lambeosaurine hadrosaurids (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)".
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 159(2): 398–434. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00611.x
• Brink KS, Zelenitsky DK, Evans DC, Therrien F and Horner JR (2011) "
A sub-adult skull of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Ornithischia: Lambeosaurinae): Anatomy and comparison".
Historical Biology 23(1): 63-72. DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2010.499169
• Bailleul AM and Horner JR (2011) "Early ossification and calcified tissues in the skull of
Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Ornithischia, Lambeosaurinae): a preliminary study".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31: 65-65.
• Bailleul AM, Hall BK and Horner JR (2012) "
First evidence of dinosaurian secondary cartilage in the post-hatching skull of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)".
PLoS ONE 7(4): e36112. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036112
• Brink KS, Zelenitsky DK, Evans DC and Horner JR (2014) "Cranial morphology and variation in
Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae)". Page 245-276 in Eberth and Evans (eds.) "
Hadrosaurs".
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"
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