5.5" Edmontosaurus Fossil Vertebrae Bone Lance Creek Cretaceous Dinosaur WY COA
Location: Lance Creek Formation, Wyoming (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 2 Pounds 13.4 Ounces
Dimensions: 5.5 Inches Long, 3.8 Inches Wide, 2.9 Inches Thick
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
Comes with a free Stand.
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
This is a genuine fossil bone, not a replica
Edmontosaurus, whose name means "lizard from Edmonton," is a hadrosaurid dinosaur species that lived during the Maastrichtian age, the terminal stage of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 71 to 65 million years ago. Mature individuals typically reach lengths of up to nine meters, with the largest specimens extending to thirteen meters. Estimated to weigh around 3.5 tonnes, Edmontosaurus stands as one of the largest members within the hadrosaurid clade.
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 a number of tubercles (bumps) on its neck and down its back and tail.
Edmontosaurus primarily moved bipedally but was capable of walking on all fours. Its forelimbs were shorter than the hindlimbs, yet sufficiently developed to support quadrupedal locomotion. The front feet possessed hooves on two fingers and weight-bearing pads similar to those seen in Camarasaurus, while the hind feet had two hooked toes. The structure of the lower limb bones indicates strong muscle attachments in both the legs and feet. Its spine curved downward at the shoulders, giving it a low stance suited for browsing close to the ground. Despite robust limbs, Edmontosaurus was likely slow and lacked significant defensive adaptations, relying instead on acute vision, hearing, and smell to detect predators early.
