Corythosaurus
koh-RITH-oh-SORE-us
"helmeted lizard"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 10 m (33 ft)
- Group
- Ornithopods, Hadrosauridae
- Found in
- Canada and United States
- Named by
- Brown 1914
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in meters
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on river floodplains in Alberta, where conifers, ferns, horsetails and flowering shrubs probably grew. Regional neighbors included Centrosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Euoplocephalus.
Field notes
About Corythosaurus
What it was like
Corythosaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur best known for the tall, rounded crest on its head, shaped somewhat like a helmet. It grew to about 10 meters (33 feet) long and walked on four legs while feeding, though it could likely rear up on two. The crest was hollow, connected to the nasal passages, and probably helped the animal make sounds, perhaps to call to others of its kind.
Its world
Corythosaurus lived in what is now Alberta, Canada, and Montana, in the United States, during the Late Cretaceous, between about 84 and 72 million years ago. Its bones, twenty-nine finds in all, come mainly from the Dinosaur Park Formation, along with the Oldman, Judith River, and Two Medicine formations.
It shared its world with the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus, the small predator Troodon, and the armored Euoplocephalus.
How it was found
Brown named Corythosaurus in 1914. It belongs to Hadrosauridae, the family of duck-billed dinosaurs, and is closely related to other crested forms such as Lambeosaurus and Olorotitan. With twenty-nine finds, it is one of the best-known hadrosaurs, including specimens preserved with skin impressions.
Field gallery
More views of Corythosaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Corythosaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Corythosaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Skulls preserve a tall, rounded crest with nasal passages running through its hollow interior.
- Skin impressions show a covering of small, pebbly scales.
- Young and partly grown skulls show the crest becoming taller as the animal grew.
Borrowed from relatives
- Almost the whole body is known from its own skeletons, so little of its basic shape needs to be borrowed.
- Comparisons with Lambeosaurus and other crested hadrosaurs help explain how its crest probably amplified calls.
Still unknown
- Its color and the markings on its crest.
- What its calls sounded like.
- Whether it cared for its young.
Often drawn wrong
- The adult crest was a broad, rounded helmet, rather than a thin antler.
- Young animals should have a low developing crest rather than the tall helmet of an adult.
Discovery timeline
- 1914Named itBrown
- 2009SkullEvans, Ridgely & Witmer
- 2012Fossil sitesMallon et al.
- 2014How it fedMallon & Anderson
- 2026Growing upDudgeon & Evans
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Corythosaurus
Named it
Named the helmet-crested Corythosaurus from a skeleton with preserved skin impressions.
Corythosaurus casuarius, a new crested dinosaur from the Belly River Cretaceous, with provisional classification of the family Trachodontidae. 33(35):559-564.
No link available
Skull
Scans of skulls and inner ears supported the idea that crested hadrosaurs used their hollow crests to make low-frequency calls.
Endocranial Anatomy of Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurids (Dinosauria: Ornithischia): A Sensorineural Perspective on Cranial Crest Function. The Anatomical Record 292: 1315-1337
Read the paper : Endocranial Anatomy of Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurids (Dinosauria: Ornithischia): A Sensorineural Perspective on Cranial Crest Function (opens in a new tab)Fossil sites
Found Corythosaurus and Centrosaurus in an earlier group of plant eaters, followed by a later group including Styracosaurus and Prosaurolophus.
Megaherbivorous dinosaur turnover in the Dinosaur Park Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 350-352: 124-138
Read the paper : Megaherbivorous dinosaur turnover in the Dinosaur Park Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada (opens in a new tab)How it fed
Compared teeth and wear marks in Corythosaurus and neighboring plant eaters, supporting differences in the foods they processed.
The Functional and Palaeoecological Implications of Tooth Morphology and Wear for the Megaherbivorous Dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. PLoS ONE 9: e98605
Read the paper : The Functional and Palaeoecological Implications of Tooth Morphology and Wear for the Megaherbivorous Dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada (opens in a new tab)Growing up
Modeled Corythosaurus skulls through growth and found that larger animals had stronger bites suited to tougher plants.
Ontogenetic changes in the cranial biomechanics of a crested hadrosaurid dinosaur. Evolution 80: 2187-2202
Read the paper : Ontogenetic changes in the cranial biomechanics of a crested hadrosaurid dinosaur (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Hadrosauridae
Sources: Wikidata