3.9" Edmontosaurus Fossil Ischium Bone Lance Creek WY Cretaceous Dinosaur COA
Location: Lance Creek Formation, Wyoming (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 6.9 Ounces
Dimensions: 3.9 Inches Long, 2.9 Inches Wide, 1.8 Inches Thick
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
This is a genuine fossil.
Edmontosaurus ("lizard from Edmonton") is a hadrosaurid dinosaur species from the Maastrichtian, the last phase of the Cretaceous period, 71-65 million years ago. A fully-grown adult could have been up to nine meters long, and some of the larger species reached thirteen meters. Its weight was in the region of 3.5 tonnes, making it one of the largest hadrosaurids.
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.
In 1908, a discovery in Wyoming was truly exceptional because scientists found fossilized skin imprints of Edmontosaurus. The skin must have dried rapidly, pressing its texture into the surrounding mud and leaving a lasting impression. Thanks to this, we understand the skin was scaly and leathery, with the thigh muscle positioned beneath the body’s skin. This setup made it seem like the leg started at the knee, with the entire thigh hidden under the skin, enhancing its duck-like appearance. The dinosaur also featured several small bumps, called tubercles, running along its neck, back, and tail.
Edmontosaurus was bipedal but could surely have walked on four legs. The forelimbs are shorter than the hindlimbs, but not so much that four-legged motivation was unfeasible. The front feet also had hooves on two fingers, and weight-bearing pads like folks of Camarasaurus. The rear feet had two toes, and all were hooked. The bone arrangement in the lower limbs suggests that both the legs and feet were attached to very influential muscles. The spine curved downwards at the shoulders, so Edmontosaurus would have had a low posture and would have browsed close to the ground. Despite the power of its limbs, Edmontosaurus would only have been slow-moving and had few defensive features. To survive, it must have had keen eyesight, hearing, and smell to get an early warning of predators.
