3.8" Edmontosaurus Fossil Femur Bone Hell Creek FM Cretaceous Dinosaur MT COA
Location: Hell Creek Formation, Montana (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 6.2 Ounces
Fossil Dimensions: 3.8 Inches Long, 3.4 Inches Wide, 0.8 Inches Thick
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Edmontosaurus (meaning "lizard from Edmonton") is a hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Maastrichtian, the last stage of the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 71 to 65 million years ago. An adult could have been up to nine meters long, with some of the larger species reaching thirteen meters. Its weight was around 3. 3.5 tonnes, making it one of the largest hadrosaurids.
Edmontosaurus could pass tough food back and forth across its teeth using its muscular cheek pouches.
To accommodate so many teeth in its mouth, they were packed into tight "banks" of up to sixty rows, and new teeth continually grew to replace lost ones — similar to a shark. The bones of the upper jaw would flex outward as the lower jaw lifted, allowing the mandible to grind against it. Its typical diet included conifer needles, seeds, and twigs, which have been found in the body cavities of fossilized specimens. It was clearly a tree- browser.
The 1908 discovery in Wyoming was especially notable because paleontologists found fossilized imprints of Edmontosaurus' skin. The skin dried rapidly and maintained its shape in the mud, leaving an impression. From these fossils, we know that its skin was scaly and leathery, with the thigh muscle located beneath the skin of the body. This would have made the leg appear to leave the body at the knee, with the entire thigh underneath the skin. This feature, among others, contributes to its resemblance to a duck. Additionally, it had a number of tubercles (bumps) on its neck, back, and tail.
Edmontosaurus was bipedal but could also have walked on four legs. The forelimbs were shorter than the hind limbs but not so much that walking on all fours was impossible. Its front feet had two toes with hooves, and weight- bearing pads similar to those of Camarasaurus. The hind feet had two hooked toes. The arrangement of bones in the lower limbs suggests that both the legs and feet were attached to prominent muscles. The spine curved downward at the shoulders, giving Edmontosaurus a low posture and allowing it to browse close to the ground. Despite its strong limbs, it was likely slow- moving and lacked many defensive features. To survive, it probably relied on keen eyesight, hearing, and smell to detect predators early.
