Why did the Maiasaura go extinct?

When did the Maiasaura become extinct? If these dinosaurs did not get extinct until the end of the cretaceous period, they may have been washed off the surface of earth around 66 million years ago – since it was around his time that the cretaceous period was brought to an end with a meteor collision!

How big is a Maiasaura?

6,600 – 22,000 lbs
Maiasaura/Mass

What does the name Maiasaura mean?

good mother reptile
Maiasaura (from the Greek “μαῖα” and the feminine form of Latin saurus, meaning “good mother reptile” or “good mother lizard”) 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 Alberta, Canada in the Upper …

How was the Maiasaura found?

Discovery. Maiasaura was discovered by dinosaur paleontologist Jack Horner (paleontologic advisor for the Jurassic Park movies). He named the dinosaur after finding a series of nests with remains of eggshells and hatchlings. This was the first proof of giant dinosaurs raising and feeding their young.

How many eggs did Maiasaura lay?

Maiasaura Females Laid 30 to 40 Eggs at a Time Maiasaura is most famous for its parenting behavior–and that behavior started with females, which laid up to 30 or 40 eggs at a time in carefully prepared nests.

What type of fossil is the Maiasaura?

dinosaurs
Maiasaura, (genus Maiasaura), duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) found as fossils from the Late Cretaceous Period (about 100 million to 65.5 million years old) of North America and whose discovery led to the theory that these bipedal herbivores cared for their young.

How do they know Maiasaura was a good mother?

There were several clues. He studied baby Maiasaura skeletons and determined they couldn’t walk just after hatching because they had soft fossilized bones. Bits of fossilized eggshell were also found, indicating hatchlings stayed in the nest long enough to trample their shells.

Was Maiasaura a good mother?

Maiasaura was formerly named and described by American palaeontologists Jack Horner and Robert Makela in 1979. As this dinosaur was such a good mother, and since the fossilised adults were believed to be female, this dinosaur was named using the Latinised female gender.

What lived with Maiasaura?

Maiasaura lived alongside of other dinosaurs such as the ceratopsians Achelousarus and Einiosaurus, the armoured nodosaur Edmontonia, hadrosaurs such as Gryposaurus, Hypacrosaurus, and Prosaurolophus, the small ornithopod Orodromeus, small theropods such as Bambiraptor and Troodon, as well as the two tyrannosaurs …

What kind of animal is a Maiasaura?

Maiasaura pronounced MAY-ya-SOR-uh (from the Greek “μαία + σαύρα”, meaning “caring mother lizard”) is a large duck-billed dinosaur genus that lived in the area currently covered by the state of Montana in the Cretaceous Period, about 74 million years ago. These get their name from the term good mother lizards.

When was the Maiasaura dinosaur found?

In 1978 a Maiasaura nesting site was discovered in the Two Medicine Formation near Choteau, Montana, U.S. The remains of an adult Maiasaura were found in close association with a nest of juvenile dinosaurs, each about 1 metre (3.3 feet) long.

How big was the giant Maiasaura?

Maiasaura was approximately 30 feet long, 8 feet tall and probably weighed around 4 tons. It was a duck-billed dinosaur that had a flattened skull and bony crests positioned in front of its eyes.

How did the Maiasaura protect itself from predators?

Just like other Hadrosaurids though, the Maiasaura may have also slapped necks together during mating season as well. This dinosaur was an herbivore. It walked both on two or four legs and seemed to have no defense from predators, though its heavy muscular tail and its herd behavior both could have been one.