Lambeosaurus was a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur, that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It had typical hadrosaur features: its face was elongated into flattened snout with toothless beak; a U-shaped neck; long hindlegs, and shorter forelegs with hooves and fleshy pads on hands; a wide, stiffened tail; a pebbly skin. Lambeosaurus's most distinctive feature was its hollow, bony crest which had a different shape in different species: a hatchet blade in Lambeosaurus lambei and a high dome in Lambeosaurus magnicristatus.

Feeding

Hadrosaurs like Lambeosaurus had hundreds of teeth, with new ones continually replacing old, worn ones. These dinosaurs could both crop and grind up the toughest of plant material in their mouths. This meant that, unlike sauropods, hadrosaurs would not have had to swallow pebbles to help with digestion inside their stomachs.

Lambeosaurus probably roamed the Cretaceous countryside in herds, browsing on twigs and leaves. It moved around on all fours, but could also stand on its back legs and use its fingers to grasp food and other objects. Its strong, flexible neck would have enabled it to gather low-growing plants all around it without having to move.

Facts about Lambeosaurus

Pronunciation: LAM-bee-oh-SAW-rus

Size: 10–14 m (33–46 ft) long and 4 m (13 ft) tall

Where and when: Swampy woodland in North America, 76-75 million years ago (Late Cretaceous)

Diet: Woodland plants such as pine needles, conifers, ginkgos, seeds, cycads, twigs and magnolia leaves

Predators: Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus

Features: Sharp vision for spotting distant predators; cheek teeth that enabled it to chew its food; the ability to run on two legs to escape danger at speed; its hollow crest may have helped to amplify warning calls to other members of its herd

Relatives: Corythosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, Parasaurolophus (North America); Tsintaosaurus, Charonosaurus (East Asia); Olorotitan (Russia)