Lambeosaurus

Lambeosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), 76.47–74.44 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Mounted Lambeosaurus skeleton, Pacific Museum of Earth, UBC
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	†Ornithischia
Clade:	†Ornithopoda
Family:	†Hadrosauridae
Subfamily:	†Lambeosaurinae
Tribe:	†Lambeosaurini
Genus:	†Lambeosaurus Parks, 1923[1]
Type species
†Lambeosaurus lambei Parks, 1923
Other species
†L. magnicristatus Sternberg, 1935[2] †L. clavinitialis? Sternberg, 1935
Synonyms
Genus synonymy Procheneosaurus Matthew, 1920 (conserved name)[3] Tetragonosaurus Parks, 1931[4] Species synonymy Tetragonosaurus praeceps Parks, 1931 Procheneosaurus praeceps (Parks, 1931) Lull & Wright, 1942[5] Tetragonosaurus cranibrevis Sternberg, 1935 Procheneosaurus cranibrevis (Sternberg, 1935) Lull & Wright, 1942 Corythosaurus frontalis Parks, 1935[6]

Lambeosaurus (/ˌlæmbiəˈsɔːrəs/ LAM-bee-ə-SOR-əs^[7]) is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period of western North America. The first skull of Lambeosaurus described was used by palaeontologist Lawrence M. Lambe to justify the creation of the new genus Stephanosaurus, but it was shown that this skull had to belong to a separate taxon, which William A. Parks named Lambeosaurus lambei in 1923, to honour Lambe. Multiple further species of Lambeosaurus have been named since, including L. clavinitialis and L. magnicristatus in 1935, and L. laticaudus in 1981 which was later moved to its own genus Magnapaulia. It has also been identified that some of the species of the genera Tetragonosaurus and Corythosaurus are juveniles of Lambeosaurus, including T. praeceps, T. cranibrevis, and C. frontalis. Lambeosaurus is the eponymous member of its subfamily Lambeosaurinae and tribe Lambeosaurini. Lambeosaurins, which also includes Corythosaurus and Hypacrosaurus from western North America, are understood to be some of the most specialized ornithopods.

Adult Lambeosaurus would have grown to around 7–7.7 m (23–25 ft) long and weighed 2.6–3.4 t (2.6–3.3 long tons; 2.9–3.7 short tons). It was able to move on two or four legs, with a deep tail, long limbs, and a highly distinct and hollow cranial crest. This crest, which can be used to separate the three recognised species of Lambeosaurus, projects well above the eye and slightly over the snout, and sometimes possesses a backwards spur. The function of the crest, which is also found in other lambeosaurines, is debated historically, but modern studies show that it could have been used as an resonating device for vocalisation, with a secondary function of being used for sexual or species identification. The crest also allows for the identification of juveniles of Lambeosaurus, which are otherwise nearly indistinguishable from juveniles of Corythosaurus. It is through this identification of juveniles that the growth of Lambeosaurus is well-known, with the crest developing late but expanding in height by an order of magnitude by the time individuals reached adulthood. Skin impressions are known from three individuals of Lambeosaurus, and show that it had unornamented scales across the entire body.

The species of Lambeosaurus are only known from the middle Campanian of the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. L. clavinitialis is known from a restricted range as the oldest species, overlapping with L. lambei which lived for around 0.3 million years, before L. magnicristatus evolved later in the Campanian. This temporal separation suggests that L. clavinitialis, which was for a time believed to be a female of either L. lambei or L. magnicristatus, is a separate species or at least earlier population. Lambeosaurus would have lived alongside the lambeosaurines Corythosaurus and Parasaurolophus, and also the hadrosaurine Prosaurolophus. Dental wear suggests that Lambeosaurus would have avoided competition with Prosaurolophus by occupying different feeding niches, preferring more closed habitats and browsing lower to the ground with a more generalist diet. The habitat Lambeosaurus lived in was a coastal plain where meandering river separated regions of dense vegetation, covered in a diversity of conifers, ferns and other shrubs, and occupied by plentiful invertebrates, fishes, mammals and reptiles, especially other megaherbivorous dinosaurs.