Lambeosaurus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived about 76 to 75 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period (Campanian) of North America. This bipedal/quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaur is known for its distinctive hollow cranial crest, which in the best-known species resembled a hatchet. Several possible species have been named in Canada, the US, and Mexico, but only the two Canadian species are currently recognized as valid. The various skulls assigned to the type species L. lambei are interpreted as showing age differences and sexual dimorphism, including some juvenile fossils previously thought to belong to a genus of dwarf hadrosaur. Lambeosaurus was closely related to the better known Corythosaurus, which is found in slightly older rocks, as well as the less well-known dinosaurs Hypacrosaurus and Olorotitan. All had unusual crests, which are now generally assumed to have served social functions like noisemaking and recognition. Lambeosaurus was belatedly described in 1923 by William Parks, over twenty years after the first material was studied by Lawrence Lambe, after whom the dinosaur is named. (Full article...)
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