5" Hypacrosaurus Dinosaur Fossil Vertebrae And Rib Bone Two Medicine FM COA Stand
Location: Two Medicine Formation, Montana (Private Land Origin)
Total Weight: 2 Pounds, 5.1 Ounces
Fossil Bone Weight: 1 Pound, 12.2 Ounces
Fossil Dimensions: 5 Inches Long, 3.3 Inches Wide, 3 Inches Thick
With Stand Dimensions: 6 Inches Long, 3.3 Inches Wide, 3 Inches Thick
Comes with a Custom Made Metal Stand.
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
Hypacrosaurus Dinosaur
The name Hypacrosaurus, meaning ‘near the highest lizard,’ refers to its proximity in size and era to the formidable Tyrannosaurus, one of the dominant dinosaurs of late Cretaceous North America. While the largest Tyrannosaurus individuals reached approximately twelve meters, Hypacrosaurus measured around nine meters, making it only slightly smaller. Remarkably, Hypacrosaurus and similar dinosaurs were likely prey to Tyrannosaurus and related predators like Albertosaurus. This is supported by compelling evidence—a substantial bite wound on the back of an Edmontosaurus, closely matching the Tyrannosaurus jaw, which had healed, indicating the attack occurred while the animal was alive rather than as scavenging.
When you compare this to the twenty or so eggs in each Hypacrosaurus nest, you get the conclusion that Hypacrosaurus were breeding at a rate to compensate for high mortality levels. Assuming that environmental conditions were not so much of a factor, this could be because Hypacrosaurus was a viable and common prey species of the time, and, tyrannosaurs withstanding, other predators of Hypacrosaurus may have included troodontids like Troodon. These small predators would have been a particular threat to the smaller individuals of Hypacrosaurus, reducing the numbers growing to adulthood.
The crest of Hypacrosaurus is similar to that of its relative Corythosaurus, though wider and not as high. This crest was also hollow, which confirms its establishment as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (the group typified by Lambeosaurus). Several theories have been made about the function of lambeosaurine head crests, though the one with the most support concerns visual display so that different species of hadrosaur can tell each other apart, probably in a similar fashion to how the differences in the forms of horns and neck frills allow different genera of ceratopsian dinosaurs to be identified.
