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The golden age of the duckbilled dinosaurs. The duckbills can be dived into tree broad families. The lambosaurines characterized by hollow head crests, high spines and narrow muzzles. They may be descended from the ouranosaurs of the Early Cretaceous. The solid crested hadrosaurs had smaller solid head crests and a broader beak. The crestless hadrosaurs whom were also broad beaked suggesting a less discriminating diet.
Maiasaura (the good mother dinosaur). Only dinosaur given a female name ending. Jack Horner found giant nesting area for this example of the solid crested hadrosaurs. He found a nesting site that had been covered by volcanic ash. It is estimated the site is from a colony of over 10,000 Maiasaura. The nest seems separated by about the body length of an adult Maiasaura. It is suggested that the eggs were incubated by covering them with rotting vegetation like some current day birds. There is evidence that the young remained in the nests and were cared for until they reached a certain size.
Much like the original Carnegie Safari Maiasaura the green Faro figure from Italy is sitting on the eggs. It seems unlikely that this was practical given the weight of Maiasaura. The Troodon are from the National Geographic MicroMachine series. Center is a Battat figure with a JP 3 nest and egg from the mold kit. Last is the current Carnegie Safari Maiasaura with nest.
Parasaurlophus (near saulophus) is a uncommon fossil but lasted into the following Masstrictian. It is most famous for having the most prominent of crests of all the lamborsaurines. The most popular ideas current for its function being as amplifier for calls or an identifier for its prospective mates.
Was the crest webbed or unwebbed? Parasaulophus is often portrayed as having a web from the crest to back of its neck as in the blue and gold Battat figure and gold and green Wild Safari figures show. They certainly look great. Given the lack of fossil evidence the most parsimonious interpretation is no web. The more conservative figures from Carnegie Safari and Schleich represent the more technical view. The center left Carnegie Safari is the new figure with revised head. The older original head is to the far right. Between them is the hooting Schleich figure.
Corythosaurus is a very common fossil in the Campanian but disappears by the Masstrictian. After the Campanian lambosaurines in general seem to be in decline. The armored dinosaurs Euplcephalus and Edmontonia also survive the Campanian age into the Masstrictian. Euplcephalus was an ankylesaur characterized by a tail club. Edmontonia was a nodosaur protected large spikes especially on the shoulders.
Left is a discontinued Carnegie Safari Euplocephalus and the Carnegie Safari Corythosaurus.
Finally the Battat Euplocephalus. The JASMAN diorama pachycephlasur is representative of Stegocerus and other small relatives.
Edmontonia was one of the last of the North American nodosaurs. Lacking the tail club of it ankylesaur cousins but possessing impressive shoulder spikes and a narrow mouth it may have been a more selective eater. This difference in feeding strategies could account for presence of two closely related animals.
The original Carnegie Safari Maiasaura lacked the solid crest and is improbably sitting on the nest of eggs. It is still a good representative
of the crestless hadrosaurs. The Maiasaura hatching is from the series 3 Dino Tales by Kaiyodo. Battat Edmontonia is often copied as a vinyl figure and seen in in toy bins.
The large predators were Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus smaller younger relatives of the later and more famous Tyrannosaurus. The main visual difference besides size would have been the presence of small hornlets over the eyes. There have been some strong arguments put forth that picture the larger tyrannosaurids as primarly scavengers. If that were true then the top predator role would have been filled by the small raptor Dromeosaurus which is not a common fossil. This would create the contradiction of the large scavenger being more more common than the smaller top predator. It is possible Dromesaurus was more common than the fossil evidence indicates because of a preservation bias. Small herbivores are also present like the hypsilophidont Orodromeus.
The Parasaurlophus is from Bullyand the tyrannosaurid is from the AAA series of solid rubber dinosaurs. It has been customized with two small horn over the eyes to make it a Daspletosaurus. The brown Corythosaurus is a Schleich figure and behind it are two Waiphong vinyl figures. In the right cornor is the Retro Classic Hypsilophidon by Araki Kazunari. It appears to be based on the older Charles Knight painting when hypsilophidon was interpreted as a tree dweller.
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