Maiasaura Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), | |
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Mounted cast, Brussels Natural History Museum | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Ornithopoda |
Family: | † Hadrosauridae |
Subfamily: | † Saurolophinae |
Tribe: | † Brachylophosaurini |
Genus: | † Maiasaura Horner & Makela, 1979 |
Type species | |
†Maiasaura peeblesorum Horner & Makela, 1979 |
Maiasaura (from the Greek μαῖα, meaning "good mother" and σαύρα, the feminine form of saurus, meaning "reptile") is a large herbivorous saurolophine hadrosaurid ("duck-billed") dinosaur genus that lived in the area currently covered by the state of Montana and the province of Alberta, Canada, [1] in the Upper Cretaceous Period (mid to late Campanian), about 76.7 million years ago. [2] Maiasaura peeblesorum is the state fossil of Montana.
The first remains of Maiasaurapeeblesorum were discovered in the Two Medicine Formation near Chouteau, Montana in 1978 by Bynum, Montana resident Laurie Trexler. This holotype specimen was later described by Horner and Makela in 1979. The given genus name refers to the finding of Maiasaura peeblesorum eggs, embryos, and juveniles in a nest-like structure by Marion Brandvold in 1978 relatively close to the holotype specimen. This discovery of fifteen juvenile dinosaurs in close proximity to an adult showed the first instance of parental and social behavior in dinosaurs. It allowed for interpretations such as that Maiasaurapeeblesorum fed its young while they were in the nest. Further work in this area led to the discovery of more dinosaur eggs, leading to the area being named “Egg Mountain.” Hundreds of bones of Maiasaurapeeblesorum have been dug up.
Maiasaura was about 9 metres (30 ft) long. Young animals walked on their hind legs, adults on all fours. Maiasaura was probably closely related to Brachylophosaurus .
Maiasaurapeeblesorum were large, attaining a maximum known length of about 9 metres (30 ft) and a body mass is measured approximately up to 4 metric tons (4.4 short tons). [3] They had a large “duck-billed” mouth structure and rows of hundreds of teeth, typical of hadrosaurids. Since hadrosaurids have very similar post-cranial body plans, [4] the distinguishing characteristic of Maiasaura peeblesorum is a prominent short, solid crest-like structure situated between their eyes. This crest may have been used in headbutting contests between males during the breeding season.
Maiasaura were herbivorous. They were capable of walking both on two (bipedal) or four (quadrupedal) legs. Studies of the stress patterns of healed bones show that young juveniles under four years old walked mainly bipedal, switching to a mainly quadrupedal style of walking when they grew larger. [5] Maiasaura, like most other hadrosaurs, possessed little in the way of obvious weaponry, though likely could defend themselves with kicks, stomps, or their muscular tails. It is likely that they primarily resorted to fleeing in the face of danger, using the vast sizes of their herds to be less likely to be targeted. Mass bone beds discovered in the Two Medicine Formation show that herds could be extremely large and comprise as many as 10,000 individuals. [6] Hundreds of specimens have been found throughout all stages of life, allowing for M. peeblesorum to be used for understanding how hadrosaurids grew. [7] Maiasaurapeeblesorum lived in a terrestrial habitats.
A skull of Maiasaura, specimen PU 22405 (now in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History as YPM PU 22405 following the transfer of the Princeton University vertebrate paleontology collections), was discovered by Laurie Trexler in 1979 and described by dinosaur paleontologists Jack Horner and Robert Makela as the holotype of a new species. They named the type species Maiasaura peeblesorum. The generic name refers to the Greek goddess Maia, the "Good Mother"; to emphasise this, they used the feminine form of saurus: saura. The specific name honours the families of John and James Peebles, on whose land the finds were made. [8] The generic name refers to Marion Brandvold's discovery in 1978 of a nest with remains of eggshells and babies too large to be hatchlings. These discoveries led to others, and the area became known as "Egg Mountain", in rocks of the Two Medicine Formation near Choteau in western Montana. This was the first proof of giant dinosaurs raising and feeding their young. [9]
Over 200 specimens, in all age ranges, have been found. [10] The announcement of the discovery of Maiasaura attracted renewed scientific interest to the Two Medicine Formation and many other new kinds of dinosaurs were discovered as a result of the increased attention. [11] Choteau Maiasaura remains are found in higher strata than their Two Medicine River counterparts. [12]
Maiasaura peeblesorum is in the tribe Brachylophosaurini along with these related taxa:
The following cladogram of hadrosaurid relationships was published in 2013 by Albert Prieto-Márquez et al.: [18]
Saurolophinae |
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Maiasaura lived in herds and it raised its young in nesting colonies. The nests in the colonies were packed closely together, like those of modern seabirds, with the gap between the nests being around 7 metres (23 ft); less than the length of the adult animal. [19] The nests were made of earth and contained 30 to 40 eggs laid in a circular or spiral pattern. The eggs were about the size of ostrich eggs and are oval shaped with one slightly more pointed end. [20] Fossilized M. peeblesorum eggs are black in color and have high, prominent ridges on the outer surface. [20]
The eggs were incubated by the heat resulting from rotting vegetation placed into the nest by the parents, rather than a parent sitting on the nest. Upon hatching, fossils of baby Maiasaura show that their legs were not fully developed and thus they were incapable of walking. Fossils also show that their teeth were partly worn, which means that the adults brought food to the nest. [9]
The hatchlings grew from a size of 41 to 147 centimetres (16 to 58 in) long in the span of their first year. At this point, or perhaps after another year, the animal left the nest. This high rate of growth may be evidence of warm bloodedness. The hatchlings had different facial proportions from the adults, with larger eyes and a shorter snout. [9] These features are associated with cuteness, and commonly elicit care from parents in animals dependent on their parents for survival during the early stages of life.
Studies led by Holly Woodward, Jack Horner, Freedman Fowler et al. have given insight into the life history of Maiasaura, resulting in what is perhaps the most detailed life history of any dinosaur known, and to which all others can be compared. From a sample of fifty individual Maiasaura tibiae, it was found that Maiasaurs had a mortality rate of about 89.9% in their first year of life. If the animals survived their second year, their mortality rate would drop to 12.7%. The animals would spend their next six years maturing and growing. Sexual maturity was found to occur in their third year, while skeletal maturity was attained at eight years of age. In their eighth year and beyond, the mortality rate for Maiasaura would spike back to around 44.4%. The studies that followed also found that Maiasaurs were primarily bipedal as juveniles, and switched to a more quadrupedal stance as they aged. It was also found that Maiasaura also included rotting wood in its diet, as well that its environment had a long, dry season prone to drought. The results of the study were published in the journal Palaeobiology on September 3, 2015. [21] [22]
A paper from 2007 showed that Maiasaura had a diet consisting of fibrous plants, wood, rotting wood, tree bark, leaves, branches, ferns, angiosperms and possibly grasses. This would imply that Maiasaura was both a browser and a grazer. [23] [24]
Studies of Maiasaura by Saitta et al., suggest that one sex was roughly 45% larger than the other according to the mathematical analysis known as size statistics. However, it cannot be ascertained at this time whether the larger gender was male or female. [25] [26]
Maiasaura is a characteristic fossil of the middle portion (lithofacies 4) of the Two Medicine Formation, dated to about 76.4 million years ago. [2] Maiasaura lived alongside the troodontids Stenonychosaurus and Troodon and the basal ornithopod Orodromeus , as well as the dromaeosaurid Bambiraptor and the tyrannosaur Daspletosaurus . [2] Another species of hadrosaurids, referable to the genus Hypacrosaurus , coexisted with Maiasaura for some time, as Hypacrosaurus remains have been found lower in the Two Medicine Formation than was earlier known. [27] The discovery of an additional hadrosaurid, Gryposaurus latidens , in the same range as Maiasaura has shown that the border between hypothesized distinct faunas in the upper and middle is less distinct than once thought. [27] There seems to be a major diversification in ornithischian taxa after the appearance of Maiasaura within the Two Medicine Formation. [27] The thorough examination of strata found along the Two Medicine River (which exposes the entire upper half of the Two Medicine Formation) indicates that the apparent diversification was a real event rather than a result of preservational biases. [27] While Maiasaura has historically been associated with the Two Medicine formation ceratopsid Einiosaurus in a single fauna, this is inaccurate, as Maiasaura is known exclusively from older strata. [28]
In the Oldman Formation of Alberta, Maiasaura lived alongside the ceratopsians Albertaceratops , Anchiceratops , Chasmosaurus , Coronosaurus , and Wendiceratops , as well as the dromaeosaurids Dromaeosaurus , Saurornitholestes , and Hesperonychus , the tyrannosaurid Daspletosaurus , the orodromine thescelosaurid Albertadromeus , the pachycephalosaurs Foraminacephale and Hanssuesia , the ornithomimid Struthiomimus , the other hadrosaurids Brachylophosaurus , Corythosaurus , and Parasaurolophus , and the ankylosaurid Scolosaurus . [1]
Hadrosaurids, or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which includes genera such as Edmontosaurus and Parasaurolophus, was a common group of herbivores during the Late Cretaceous Period. Hadrosaurids are descendants of the Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaurs and had a similar body layout. Hadrosaurs were among the most dominant herbivores during the Late Cretaceous in Asia and North America, and during the close of the Cretaceous several lineages dispersed into Europe, Africa, and South America.
Brachylophosaurus was a mid-sized member of the hadrosaurid family of dinosaurs. It is known from several skeletons and bonebed material from the Judith River Formation of Montana, the Wahweap Formation of Utah and the Oldman Formation of Alberta, living about 81-76.7 million years ago.
Hypacrosaurus was a genus of duckbill dinosaur similar in appearance to Corythosaurus. Like Corythosaurus, it had a tall, hollow rounded crest, although not as large and straight. It is known from the remains of two species that spanned 75 to 67 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, United States, and is the latest hollow-crested duckbill known from good remains in North America. It was an obscure genus until the discovery in the 1990s of nests, eggs, and hatchlings belonging to H. stebingeri.
Gryposaurus was a genus of duckbilled dinosaur that lived about 80 to 75 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. Named species of Gryposaurus are known from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada, and two formations in the United States: the Lower Two Medicine Formation in Montana and the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah. A possible additional species from the Javelina Formation in Texas may extend the temporal range of the genus to 66 million years ago.
Brachyceratops is a dubious genus of ceratopsian dinosaur known only from partial juvenile specimens dating to the late Cretaceous Period of Montana, United States.
The Two Medicine Formation is a geological formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma and 70.6 ± 3.4 Ma, during Campanian time. It crops out to the east of the Rocky Mountain Overthrust Belt, and the western portion of this formation is folded and faulted while the eastern part, which thins out into the Sweetgrass Arch, is mostly undeformed plains. Below the formation are the nearshore deposits of the Virgelle Sandstone, and above it is the marine Bearpaw Shale. Throughout the Campanian, the Two Medicine Formation was deposited between the western shoreline of the Late Cretaceous Interior Seaway and the eastward advancing margin of the Cordilleran Overthrust Belt. The Two Medicine Formation is mostly sandstone, deposited by rivers and deltas.
Prosaurolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is known from the remains of at least 25 individuals belonging to two species, including skulls and skeletons, but it remains obscure. Its fossils have been found in the late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, and the roughly contemporaneous Two Medicine Formation in Montana, dating to around 75.5-74.0 million years ago. Its most recognizable feature is a small solid crest formed by the nasal bones, sticking up in front of the eyes.
The Judith River Formation is a fossil-bearing geologic formation in Montana, and is part of the Judith River Group. It dates to the Late Cretaceous, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It was laid down during the same time period as portions of the Two Medicine Formation of Montana and the Oldman Formation of Alberta. It is an historically important formation, explored by early American paleontologists such as Edward Drinker Cope, who named several dinosaurs from scrappy remains found here on his 1876 expedition. Modern work has found nearly complete skeletons of the hadrosaurid Brachylophosaurus.
Wulagasaurus is a genus of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China.
The Aguja Formation is a geological formation in North America, exposed in Texas, United States and Chihuahua and Coahuila in Mexico, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. Fossil palms have also been unearthed here.
The Mooreville Chalk is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. states of Alabama and Mississippi, which were part of the subcontinent of Appalachia. The strata date back to the early Santonian to the early Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The chalk was formed by pelagic sediments deposited along the eastern edge of the Mississippi embayment. It is a unit of the Selma Group and consists of the upper Arcola Limestone Member and an unnamed lower member. Dinosaur, mosasaur, and primitive bird remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the Mooreville Chalk Formation.
Continuoolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg found in the late Cretaceous of North America. It is most commonly known from the late Campanian of Alberta and Montana, but specimens have also been found dating to the older Santonian and the younger Maastrichtian. It was laid by an unknown type of theropod. These small eggs are similar to the eggs of oviraptorid dinosaurs, but have a distinctive type of ornamentation.
Acristavus is a genus of saurolophine dinosaur. Fossils have been found from the Campanian Two Medicine Formation in Montana and Wahweap Formation in Utah, United States. The type species A. gagslarsoni was named in 2011. Unlike nearly all hadrosaurids except Edmontosaurus, Acristavus lacked ornamentation on its skull. The discovery of Acristavus is paleontologically significant because it supports the position that the ancestor of all hadrosaurids did not possess cranial ornamentation, and that ornamentation was an adaptation that later arose interdependently in the subfamilies Saurolophinae and Lambeosaurinae. It is closely related to Brachylophosaurus and Maiasaura, and was assigned to a new clade called Brachylophosaurini.
Brachylophosaurini is a tribe of saurolophine hadrosaurs with known material being from N. America and potentially Asia. It contains at least four taxa; Acristavus, Brachylophosaurus, Maiasaura, and Probrachylophosaurus. A hadrosaur from the Amur river, Wulagasaurus, might be a member of this tribe, but this is disputed. The group was defined by Terry A. Gates and colleagues in 2011.
Kritosaurini is a tribe of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous.
Oohkotokia is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur within the subfamily Ankylosaurinae. It is known from the upper levels of the Two Medicine Formation of Montana, United States. The discovery of Oohkotokia supports that Ankylosaurine dinosaurs existed and flourished continuously in Montana and/or Alberta throughout the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian stages in the Late Cretaceous period. It was a large, heavily built, quadrupedal, herbivore, that could grow up to 5 metres (16 ft) long and weigh up to 2 metric tons.
This timeline of hadrosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the hadrosauroids, a group of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaurs popularly known as the duck-billed dinosaurs. Scientific research on hadrosaurs began in the 1850s, when Joseph Leidy described the genera Thespesius and Trachodon based on scrappy fossils discovered in the western United States. Just two years later he published a description of the much better-preserved remains of an animal from New Jersey that he named Hadrosaurus.
Probrachylophosaurus bergei is a species of large herbivorous brachylophosaurin hadrosaurid dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Campanian Judith River Formation, of Montana and the Foremost Formation of Alberta.
David Christopher Evans is a Canadian palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in the evolution and paleobiology of Cretaceous dinosaurs in western North America. He received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and currently serves as the Senior Curator and Temerty Chair of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Evans is particularly renowned for his work on the paleobiology of hadrosaur ("duck-billed") dinosaurs and has conducted international research on a wide variety of paleontological topics.