Genus

Valid Extinct

Saurolophus

Brown 1912

Etymology Reptile à crête

Saurolophus is a genus of large hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period of North America and Asia, in what is now the Horseshoe Canyon and Nemegt formations respectively. It is one of the few dinosaur genera known from multiple continents. The type species, S. osborni, was described by Barnum Brown in 1912 from Canadian fossils. A second valid species, S. angustirostris, is represented by numerous specimens from Mongolia, and was described by Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky. Saurolophus is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back from the skull. It was a herbivorous dinosaur which could move either bipedally or quadrupedally.

Temporal range

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

Paleogene

Neogene

252 201 145 66 0 Ma

PBDB occurrences

Group

Dinosaures

Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial

click to enlarge

2014-03-25 12.46.48 © Yuya Tamai from Gifu, Japan · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia

PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗

Classification

Dinosauria Unranked clade

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Ornithischia Unranked clade

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Neornithischia Unranked clade

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Pyrodontia Unranked clade

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Cerapoda Unranked clade

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Ornithopoda Suborder

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Iguanodontia Infraorder

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Euiguanodontia Unranked clade

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Dryomorpha Unranked clade

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Ankylopollexia Unranked clade

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Styracosterna Unranked clade

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Hadrosauriformes Unranked clade

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Hadrosauroidea Unranked clade

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Hadrosauridae Family

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Hadrosaurinae Subfamily

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Saurolophini Tribe

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Saurolophus Genus

Measurements

Length

10,2 m ⓘ

Saurolophus osborni — min connu

12,9 m ⓘ

Saurolophus angustirostris — max connu

9 m ⓘ

Mass

4 500 kg ⓘ

Saurolophus osborni — min connu

9 000 kg ⓘ

Saurolophus angustirostris — max connu

Fossil sites 38 geolocated sites

Distribution

Top countries

🇲🇳 Mongolia

🇨🇦 Canada

🇺🇸 United States

Geological formations

Nemegt

Horseshoe Canyon

Oldman

Almond

Kirtland

Temporal distribution

Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)

Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)

Species (2)

Saurolophus angustirostris 72 Ma

Saurolophus osborni 84 Ma

Images 2

Bibliography

Original description

B. Brown. 1912. A crested dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 31(14):131-136

Bibliography (19)

Y. Lee, L. L. Jacobs, and P. J. Currie, R. Barsbold. 2023. Narrative of the Korea-Mongolian International Dinosaur expeditions (KID) 2006–2010 with scientific results. Windows into Sauropsid and Synapsid Evolution: Essays in Honor of Louis L. Jacobs

P. J. Currie. 2016. Dinosaurs of the Gobi: Following in the footsteps of the Polish-Mongolian Expeditions. Palaeontologia Polonica 67:83-100 DOI ↗

P. R. Bell. 2012. Standardized terminology and potential taxonomic utility for hadrosaurid skin impressions: a case study for Saurolophus from Canada and Mongolia. PLoS One 7(2):e31295:1-12 DOI ↗

B. Kremer, K. Owocki, and A. Królikowska, B. Wrzosek, J. Kazmierczak. 2012. Mineral microbial structures in a bone of the Late Cretaceous dinosaur Saurolophus angustirostris from the Gobi Desert, Mongolia—a Raman spectroscopy study. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 358–360:51-61 DOI ↗

M. Watabe, S. Suzuki, and K. Tsogtbaatar, T. Tsubamoto, M. Saneyoshi. 2010. Report of the HMNS-MPC Joint Paleontological Expedition in 2006. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 3:11-18

T. A. Gates and A. A. Farke. 2009. Biostratigraphic and biogeographic implications of a hadrosaurid (Ornithopoda: Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Almond Formation of Wyoming, USA. Cretaceous Research 30:1157-1163 DOI ↗

S. Ishigaki, M. Watabe, and K. Tsogtbaatar, M. Saneyoshi. 2009. Dinosaur footprints from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Geological Quarterly 53(4):449-460

P. Bell. 2007. The Danek Bonebed: an unusual dinosaur assemblage from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Edmonton, Alberta. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3, suppl.):46A

K. Tsogtbaatar and T. Chinzorig. 2007. Mongolian hadrosaurids: paleobiogeography, dispersal and environmental relationships. The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research 21(2):49-53

Y. Matsumoto, R. Hashimoto, and T. Sonoda. 2000. Report of preparation works for Mongolian specimens in HMNS from March 1994 to December 1998. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 1:113-127

S. Suzuki and M. Watabe. 2000. Report on the Japan–Mongolia Joint Paleontological Expedition to the Gobi desert, 1998. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 1:83-98

W. Watabe and S. Suzuki. 2000. Report on the Japan–Mongolia Joint Paleontological Expedition to the Gobi desert, 1994. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 1:30-44

S. M. Kurzanov. 1993. Novaya nakhodka otpechatka kozhi zavrolofa [New find of Saurolophus skin impression]. Sledy Zhiznedeyatelbnosti Drevnikh Organizmov [Trace Fossils of Extinct Organisms]

R. Gradzinski, Z. Kielan-Jaworowska, and T. Maryanska. 1977. Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta, Barun Goyot and Nemegt formations of Mongolia, including remarks on previous subdivisions. Acta Geologica Polonica 27(3):281-318

R. Gradzinski and T. Jerzykiewicz. 1972. Additional geographical and geological data from the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions. Palaeontologia Polonica 27:17-306

Z. Kielan-Jaworowska and R. Barsbold. 1972. Narrative of the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions 1967-1971. Palaeontologia Polonica 27:5-136

A. K. Rozhdestvensky. 1952. Novyi predstavitel' utkonosykh dinozavrov iz verkhnemelovykh otlozhenii Mongolii [A new representative of the duck-billed dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia]. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 86(2):405-408

R. S. Lull and N. E. Wright. 1942. Hadrosaurian dinosaurs of North America. Geological Society of America Special Paper 40:1-242 DOI ↗

B. Brown. 1913. The skeleton of Saurolophus, a crested duck-billed dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 32(19):387-393

Saurolophus

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