7" Hypacrosaurus Dinosaur Fossil Femur Bone Two Medicine FM Hadrosaur COA
Location: Two Medicine Formation, Montana (Private Land Origin)
Weight: 3 Pounds 0.5 Ounces
Dimensions: 7 Inches Long, 5.2 Inches Wide, 2.7 Inches Thick
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Hypacrosaurus Dinosaur
Hypacrosaurus, meaning ‘near the highest lizard,’ references its close size to the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus, one of the dominant predators of late Cretaceous North America. While Tyrannosaurus could reach twelve meters, large Hypacrosaurus individuals measured around nine meters. Fossil evidence suggests Hypacrosaurus and similar species may have been prey for Tyrannosaurus and related genera like Albertosaurus
Examining the presence of around twenty eggs per Hypacrosaurus nest reveals that this dinosaur bred rapidly enough to offset high mortality rates. With stable environmental conditions, this suggests Hypacrosaurus was a key and abundant prey species of its era. Beyond tyrannosaurs, smaller predators like troodontids, including Troodon, posed a significant threat to younger Hypacrosaurus individuals, limiting their chances of reaching adulthood. This information highlights the resilience and significance of Hypacrosaurus in its ecosystem.
The crest of Hypacrosaurus is similar to that of its relative Corythosaurus, though wider and not as high. This crest was also hollow, which confirms its establishment as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (the group typified by Lambeosaurus). Several theories have been made about the function of lambeosaurine head crests, though the one with the most support concerns visual display so that different species of hadrosaur can tell each other apart, probably in a similar fashion to how the differences in the forms of horns and neck frills allow different genera of ceratopsian dinosaurs to be identified.
