Updated 04-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about PARASAUROLOPHUS!
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My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: three species are universally recognized . a fourth species, P. jiayensis, has been proposed . remains are known from Alberta (Canada), New Mexico and Utah (United States) the genus was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton found in Alberta . it is known for its large, elaborate cranial crest, which at its largest forms a the length of the type specimen of P. walkeri is estimated at 9.5 m (31 ft) it is one of the rarer hadrosaurids, known from only a handful of good specimens a ligament ran from the crest to the notch to support the head . skin impressions are known for P. walkeri . parasaurolophus is sometimes restored with a skin flap from the crest to the neck . it is based on ROM 768, a skull and partial skeleton missing most of the tail and hind legs William Parks named the specimen P. walkeri in honor of Sir Byron Edmund Walker . parasaurolophus remains are rare in Alberta, with only one other partial skull . in some faunal lists, there is in 1921, Charles H. Sternberg recovered a partial skull in San Juan County, new Mexico . it was sent to Uppsala, Sweden, where Carl Wiman described it as a second species . john ostrom described another good specimen from new Mexico as P. cyrtocristatus in 1961 . it includes a partial skull with a short, rounded crest, and much of the postcra one skull has been found in Utah with the short/round P. cyrtocristatus crest morphology . all of them can be distinguished from each other, and have many differences . the first named species all known specimens of P. tubicen come from the De-Na-Zin Member of the Kirtland Formation . in 1961, the third species, P. cyrtocristatus was named the second specimen, the first known from the Kaiparowits Formation, was originally unassigned to a specific taxon . the type material of P. cyrtocristatus is about 72% the study: Charonosaurus jiayensis was actually nested deep inside Parasaurolophus . it created the new species P. jyayentsis, known from two continent cyrtocristatus may be the most basal of the three known Parasaurolophus species . it may represent subadult or female specimens of P. tubicen . lambeosauri the juvenile was discovered in the Kaiparowits Formation in 2009 . it is the most complete, as well as youngest Parasaurolophus ever found . no complete skull of the intermediate age between RAM 14000 and adult Para the juvenile show that crest growth of Parasaurolophus began sooner than in related genera . it has been suggested that adults bore such large crests because of age difference . the crest of the juvenile is not long and the skull was split down the middle by erosion, possibly when it was resting on the bottom of a river bed . after reconstruction, the skull viewed from the side resembles other juvenile lambeosaurines found many of the smaller neural canals and foramina could not be identified for certain . it is not clear which was most significant at what times in the evolution of the crest and its internal nasal passages . a recent restudy of a juvenile braincase provides evidence that a small tubular crest was present in juveniles . juvenile Parasaurolophus probably had small, rounded crests that probably grew the growth of the crest in Parasaurolophus and the facial profile of juvenile individuals differed from the Corythosaurus-Hypacrosaurus-Lambeosaurous model . in part many hypotheses have been discredited or rejected . there is no hole at the end of the crest for a snorkeling function . as an airlock, it would not have kept out water . there are no proposals to explain why the crest has such a shape or why other lambeosaurids should have crests that look much different but perform a similar function . work on the nasal cavity of Evans published an argument about the functions of lambeosaurine crests . he supported why this could be a causing factor for the evolution of the crest . this function was originally suggested by Wiman in 19 the nasal tubes of Hypacrosaurus, Corythosaurus, and Lambeosaurous are much more variable and complicated than the airway of Parasaurolophus . weishampel in 1981 suggested that the hadrosaurid lagena is elongate like a crocodilian’s, indicating that the auditory portion of the inner ear was well-developed . this suggests that adult had social and physiological functions have become more supported as function(s) of the crest . crest has clear value as a visual signal and sets this animal apart from its contemporaries . large size of hadrosauri parks published a second interpretation of this, as a ligament attachment to support the head . the skeleton shows a v-shaped gap or notch in the vertebrae at the base of the neck . the notch is still considered more likely to be a pathology . the fourth, fifth, and sixth vertebrae were damaged . it was a rare constituent of this fauna. the climate was warmer than present-day Alberta, without frost, but with wetter and drier seasons . the presence of Parasaurolophus and Kritosaurus in northern latitude fossil sites may represent faunal both taxa are uncommon outside of the southern biome . along with Pentaceratops, they are predominate members of the fauna . when Parasaurolophus existed, the Fruitland Formation was swampy the fishes are represented by the two species Melvius chauliodous and Myledalphus bipartitus . the crurotarsans include Brachychampsa montana and one pterosaur is known, named Navajodactylus boerei . turtles are fairly plentiful, and are known from Denazinemys nodossa, Basile the site of the Kaiparowits Formation was located near the western shore of the western interior seaway . the climate was wet and humid, and supported an abundant and diverse range of organisms . this formation contains one of a variety of early mammals were present including multituberculates, marsupials, and insectivorans . “Ten Facts About Parasaurolophus”. About.Com Dinosaurs. ” Hartman, Scott (2004). “Ornithischians: Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus”. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Hartman, Scott (2013). “Ornithischians: Parasaurolophus walkeri”. Hartman’s Skeletal Drawing.