3.1" Edmontosaurus Dinosaur Fossil Tail Caudal Vertebrae Bone Lance Creek WY COA
Location: Lance Creek Formation, Weston County, Wyoming (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 1 Pound 2.3 Ounces
Dimensions: 3.1 Inches Long, 2.6 Inches Wide, 2.6 Inches Thick
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
This is a genuine fossil.
Edmontosaurus, meaning "lizard from Edmonton," is a hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian stage, the final segment of the Cretaceous period, approximately 71 to 65 million years ago. Adult individuals could grow up to nine meters in length, with some larger specimens reaching thirteen meters. Weighing around 3.5 tonnes, Edmontosaurus ranks among the largest hadrosaurid dinosaurs known.
Edmontosaurus could pass the toughest foodstuffs back and forth across the 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 particularly remarkable in that paleontologists actually recovered fossilized imprints of Edmontosaurus' skin. The skin drying very quickly and fixing its shape into the mud must have left an impression. It is from these limitations that we know the skin was scaly and leathery, and the thigh muscle was under the skin of the body. This would have given the feeling that the leg left its body at the knee, and the whole thigh was under the skin. This only contributes to its resemblance to a duck. It also had many tubercles (bumps) on its neck and down its back and tail.
Edmontosaurus was primarily bipedal but was capable of walking on all fours. Its forelimbs were shorter than the hindlimbs, yet still strong enough to support four-legged movement. The front feet featured hooves on two fingers and weight-bearing pads similar to those of Camarasaurus, while the rear feet had two hooked toes. The lower limb bones indicate attachment to powerful muscles. With a spine that curved downward at the shoulders, Edmontosaurus maintained a low stance, feeding close to the ground. Although its limbs were strong, it likely moved slowly and lacked significant defense mechanisms, relying instead on sharp eyesight, hearing, and smell to detect predators early.
