Dino card No. 0449 of 2,015

Corythosaurus

Say it: kuh-RITH-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “helmeted lizard”1

Ate: PlantsDuck-billsLate Cretaceous

Corythosaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 77 to 75 million years ago. It had a tall, hollow crest on its head that looked like a helmet. This dinosaur used its beak to munch on soft plants and leaves.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA1 3 2

Food

Plants1

Length

7.7 to 9 m1

Artist's life restoration of Corythosaurus — How Corythosaurus may have looked, by Connor Ashbridge. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Corythosaurus is named after its crest, which looks like a Corinthian helmet worn by ancient Greek soldiers.1

The crest was hollow and connected to the nose. Scientists think Corythosaurus used it to make loud calls, like a trombone.1

One nearly complete skeleton was found with impressions of its skin, showing it had polygonal scales.1

Corythosaurus lived alongside other dinosaurs like the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus and the horned dinosaur Centrosaurus.1

The first Corythosaurus fossil was discovered in 1911 by Barnum Brown in Alberta, Canada.1

Corythosaurus had a beak that was shallow and delicate, so it probably ate only the softest plants.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Corythosaurus
Named by: Brown 19143
Group: Duck-bills
Family / clade: Hadrosauridae3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia > Hadrosauridae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Dinosaur Park, Oldman, Judith River3
Countries: Canada, USA3
Fossil records: 29 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Corythosaurus was named by Barnum Brown in 1914 after he found a nearly complete skeleton in Alberta, Canada in 1911.1 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether some species of Corythosaurus, like C. intermedius, are really separate or just different ages or sexes of the same species.1

Where the facts come from

Corythosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Corythosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Corythosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@dinowiki.app and we will fix it.