2.5" Edmontosaurus Fossil Tail Vertebrae Bone Lance Creek Dinosaur WY COA
Location: Lance Creek Formation, Wyoming (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 12.6 Ounces
Dimensions: 2.5 Inches Long, 2.5 Inches Wide, 2.5 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.
Edmontosaurus packed its mouth with tightly arranged "banks" of up to sixty rows of teeth, constantly growing new ones to replace those lost—much like a shark’s tooth system. Its upper jaw bones flexed outward as the lower jaw moved up, enabling the mandible to grind food efficiently. Fossil evidence reveals it fed on conifer needles, seeds, and twigs, showing that this dinosaur was clearly 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 also well-adapted for quadrupedal locomotion. Its forelimbs, though shorter than the hindlimbs, were sufficiently robust to support four-legged movement. The forefeet possessed hooves on two digits and weight-bearing pads reminiscent of those in Camarasaurus, while the hindfeet featured two hooked toes. The configuration of the lower limb bones indicates strong muscular attachments facilitating limb function. With a downward-curving spine at the shoulder region, Edmontosaurus maintained a low posture suited for browsing near the ground. Despite its limb strength, it was relatively slow and lacked substantial defensive adaptations, relying instead on acute vision, hearing, and olfaction to anticipate predator threats.
