Get facts, information and plush toy Parasaurolophus at The Forest Cottage.
The big blue and green Parasaurolophus stuffed animal is made by Adventure Planet. Another version of the same dinosaur is shown at left. This is Tooter, a Beanie Baby made by Ty Inc. Tooter seems to be a Parasaurolophus or "Crested Lizard." Our sponsor, Jeannie's Cottage LLC has some of these available in their online Gift Shop.
The crest of the Parasaurolophus was bony and hollow and could be up to 6 feet long. The snout was duck-billed. Its horny beak had numerous cheek teeth. Parasaurolophus was about 40 feet long and 8 feet tall at the hips. It weighed possibly 2 tons.
Parasaurolophus may have been a herding animal; fossilized stomach contents consisted mostly of plants on land rather than water plants. Plant matter may have been pine needles, leaves and twigs.
Parasaurolophus lived during the late Cretaceous period toward the end of the Mesozoic, the Age of Reptiles. Among the contemporaries of Parasaurolophus in the late-Cretaceous (in North America) were Albertosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Lambeosaurus (another hadrosaur), Euoplocephalus, Kritosaurus, and Pachyrhinosaurus.
Parasaurolophus was an ornithopod. Scientists base the intelligence of dinosaurs on their relative brain to body weight. Parasaurolophus was of average intelligence.
Based on fossilized skeletal remains, Parasaurolophus probably walked and ran on two legs, and was relatively fast.
Fossil remains of Parasaurolophus have been found in Canada and the USA. It was first discovered in 1922 by Dr. William A. Parks.
