2.1" Edmontosaurus Dinosaur Fossil Tooth Battery Hell Creek FM MT COA Display
Location: Hell Creek Formation, Dawson County, Montana (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 1.4 Ounces
Fossil Dimensions: 2.1 Inches Long, 1.2 Inches Wide, 0.4 Inches Thick
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Edmontosaurus ("lizard from Edmonton") is a hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Maastrichtian, the last stage of the Cretaceous period, dating from 71 to 65 million years ago. An adult could have measured up to nine meters in length, with some of the larger species reaching thirteen meters. Its weight was approximately 3.5 tonnes, making it one of the largest hadrosaurids.
Edmontosaurus could pass the toughest foodstuffs back and forth across its teeth with its muscular, daring pouches.
To fit so many teeth into its mouth, they were packed into tight "banks" of up to sixty rows, and new teeth continually grew to replace lost teeth — analogous to a new shark. The bones of the higher jaw would flex outwards as the lower jaw came up, so the mandible could grind against it. Typical food would have built-in conifer needles, seeds, and twigs, and these have been established in the body cavities of fossilized Edmontosaurus. It was evidently a tree browser.
The 1908 discovery in Wyoming was especially notable because paleontologists actually found fossilized imprints of Edmontosaurus' skin. The skin drying quickly and fixing its shape in the mud likely left the impression. From these limitations, we know the skin was scaly and leathery, and the thigh muscle was beneath the skin of the body. This would have created the impression that the leg was separate from the body at the knee, with the entire thigh beneath the skin. This also gives it a resemblance to a duck. Additionally, it had several tubercles (bumps) on its neck, down its back, and on its tail.
Edmontosaurus was bipedal but could likely have walked on four legs. The forelimbs are shorter than the hands, but not enough to make four-legged movement impossible. The front feet also had hooves on two fingers and weight-bearing pads similar to those of Camarasaurus. The rear feet had two hooked toes. The bone structure in the lower limbs suggests that both the legs and feet were attached to powerful muscles. The spine curved downward at the shoulders, so Edmontosaurus would have had a low posture and browsed close to the ground. Despite its strong limbs, Edmontosaurus would have been slow and had few defense features. To survive, it likely relied on keen eyesight, hearing, and smell for detecting predators at a distance.
