Fun Lambeosaurus Facts For Kids

This duck-billed Lambeosaurus dinosaur belongs to the phylum Chordata, class Archosauria, genus Lambeosaurus, order Ornithischia, suborder Ornithopoda, infraorder Iguanodontia, and superfamily Hadrosauroidea. On top of their skull, they have a distinctive hatchet-shaped hollow bony crest and had blunt teeth.

With respect to their diet, they were herbivores and they lived in the Late Cretaceous period in history which was about 99-65 million years ago. Their fossils or remains were first found in North America and this dinosaur was discovered by Oldman Formation in 1914, in Alberta, Canada.

Also, recently their fossils also got found in the regions of Mexico.

Lambeosaurus and the other cousin genera are the members of the subgroup hadrosaur, Lambeosaurinae. The paleontologist Lawrence Lambe assigned it to the genus Trachodon along with different species when they first discovered it.

After two decades, this Lambe’s lizard fossils or remains were grouped into the genera Procheneosaurus, Didanodon, and Tetragonosaurus as the features were very similar. Finally, in 1923, the paleontologists gave this duck-billed dinosaur a name-Lambeosaurus, to pay honor to its finder, Lawrence Lambe.

You can also check out Maiasaura and Corythosaurus to get more insights about related animals.

Lambeosaurus Interesting Facts

How do you pronounce 'Lambeosaurus'?

The pronunciation of this dinosaur of a hollow crest is 'lam-beo-saw-rus.' The dinosaur Lambeosurus is very closely related to the other dinosaur species Corythosaurus, Olorotitan, and Hypactosaurus, which were found in relatively older rocks. These species had an unusual hollow crest which generally gets assumed to have a purpose of social functions of recognition and noisemaking.

What type of dinosaur was a Lambeosaurus?

Discovered by Lawrence Lambe, this dinosaur is a duck-billed dinosaur often called 'Lambe's Lizard.' In terms of the duck-billed feature, they resemble the Hadrosaurids.

The feature of the hollow crest was different in close related type species of L lambei and L.magnicristatus. L. lambei had a hatchet shape after full growth and were more rounder, as has been found in the specimens.

In front of the eyes, there was a hatchet blade with a solid bony handle present over the back of the Lambeosaurus skull too. But in L.magnicristatus, that handle was very reduced and the hatchet blade was large.

In which geological period did the Lambeosaurus roam the earth?

The l magnicristatus species used to live in the Cretaceous period which was about 83-65 million years ago, the end of the Mesozoic age, which is called the age of reptiles. The contemporaries of Lambeosaurus in North America were Triceratops,  Corythosaurus, Nanotyrannus, and Albertosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Pachyrhinosaurus. Parasaurolophus, Kritosaurus, and T.rex.

When did the Lambeosaurus become extinct?

According to the records on their lifespan, they are believed to have gone extinct 65 million years ago due to huge mass extinction in the late Cretaceous period.

Where did a Lambeosaurus live?

This species lived in the terrestrial habitats of the regions of North America and some parts of Canada as well during the late cretaceous period in history. One of the earliest remains was found in Alberta, Canada.

What was a Lambeosaurus habitat?

This Tetragonosaurus were herbivores animals and used to live in the regions of grasses and terrestrial habitats. The areas of good availability of water and green foliage used to be their main preference to settle.

These multi-ton herbivores like hadrosaurs and the sauropods used to live in water according to some paleontologists but might have died because of their own weight. Some of the Lambeosaurus used to live a semi-aquatic life.

Who did a Lambeosaurus live with?

These dinosaurs used to share their territories with many horned or billed dinosaurs like tyrannosaurs (Gorgosaurus), which used to target the aged, sick, or juvenile Lambeosaurus individuals and the ankylosaurs (Euplocephalus and Edmontonia).

How long did a Lambeosaurus live?

The exact information on this is not available yet. They got extinct 65 million years ago during or later after the late Cretaceous period, which is the younger of two epochs. They got their name from Lawrence Lambe.

How did they reproduce?

There is no absolute information available on their reproduction as of now as to whether they laid eggs or not or used to provide parental care to the babies. There has been debate over the genus Trachodon and genera Procheneosaurus.

Lambeosaurus Fun Facts

What did a Lambeosaurus look like?

L. magnicristatus was a duck-billed dinosaur, also known as Lambe’s lizard. They had a hollow bony crest which is forward-leaning and also was bigger than the skull and used to help in producing sounds, sense different smells, and courtship displays.

Their nostrils went straight up to the crest around the skull, had a narrow snout and a wide beak. The male Lambeosaurus had a comparatively large crest than the females.

They had very good sight and sense of hearing, but they used to lack the characteristics of the natural defenses. They grew up to 354.33-590.55 in (9-15 m) in length and weighed around 5 tons (4535.92 kg).

They are known as the largest duck-bill dinosaur. These dinosaurs were like hadrosaurids to a great extent and used to move on both four legs and two legs, as has been seen by their footprints.

They had a long tail which was stiffened by the ossifies tendons that used to prevent it from dropping down like Hadrosaurids. These dinosaurs had four fingers, unlike other tetrapods which had five fingers.

The second, third, and fourth fingers were grouped together, indicating that they used to use this ability for support. They had only three central toes.

How many bones did a Lambeosaurus have?

The number of bones that a Lambeosaurus skeleton had is still not known.

How did they communicate?

Little information is available on their communicating skills. They used to use their hollow bony crest to interact with their groupmates and this crest also helped them to identify their mates.

How big was a Lambeosaurus?

The length of this species of clade Ornithopoda was about 354.33-590.55 in (9-15 m).

How fast could a Lambeosaurus move?

L magnicristatus used to walk and run mostly run on two legs only of the four. They are considered fast-moving dinosaurs after looking at the footprints. They might use their four legs to forage for plants.

How much did a Lambeosaurus weigh?

The weight of this duck-billed species Lambeosaurus (l lambei), used to be around 1-5.6 tons (907.18-5080.23 kg). It was discovered by Lawrence Lambe and was put into the genus Trachodon first, along with different species.

What were the male and female names of the species?

There are no specific names for the male and the female of this dinosaur species of North America Lambeosaurus (Lambeosaurus lambei).

What would you call a baby Lambeosaurus?

The baby of this herbivore dinosaur species does not have any particular name to get called by. They were called 'baby Lambeosaurus'.

What did they eat?

As this dinosaur Lambeosaurus was a herbivore, it mainly used to feed on just plant materials. Fruits, flowers, pine needles, leaves, grasses, and twigs used to be in its diet.

How aggressive were they?

These giant lizard-looking dinosaurs were not as aggressive as their big Lambeosaurus size is. But showed aggression when got teased by the predators or need to defend their territory. They were very social and used to travel in large herds.

Did you know...

This North American herbivore dinosaur is also considered a very close relative of the Corythosaurus. Lambeosaurus and Corythosaurus are almost indistinguishable and it is very tough to point out their distinctive features individually.

Corythosaurus is a Corinthian-helmeted lizard that used to live around Alberta in Canada. The slightest difference between these two similar-looking dinosaurs is that the crest which a Corythosaurus had was rounder in shape as compared to the former and also was less eccentrically oriented.

Corythosaurus lived before the Lambeosaurus by a few million years. One more dinosaur called the Olorotitan, which was found in eastern Russia and was a rough contemporaneous hadrosaur, used to have very similar features with Lambeosaurus.

What was the purpose of the Lambeosaurus' crest?

The functions of the crest of this herbivore Lambeosaurus dinosaur is still and then also was quite debatable. This hollow crest served many vivid functions for this dinosaur.

The crest was bigger than the skull. Like they used to use it during the courtship displays, to recognize their groupmates from a large distance.

Apart from that, this bony crest is also used to help these animals to communicate by producing some deep sounds with other mates of the herd or during reproduction. It is believed that this hollow crest is used to improve their sense of smell as well.

How is the Lambeosaurus different from other dinosaurs?

The Lambeosaurus was very different than other dinosaurs, be they from the same age or a little later.

These dinosaurs used to have a distinctive feature of a hollow crest which served many functions and it is still debatable whether what was the main function. They showed a slight difference from the hadrosaurs.

Though like other dinosaurs, they also had four legs, their unique feature of having the ability to walk on both two legs and four legs in need put them aside from other species.

They had very narrow front legs, but the back legs were very wide and usually used for providing balance when in need. Their jaws had hundreds of teeth and they had rudimentary cheeks which helped them to chew the tough leaves, grasses, and shoots with its duck-like bill.

One exciting feature about their teeth was that they used to keep replacing them their entire lifespan.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly dinosaur facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these Cedarpelta fun facts and Veterupristisaurus facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable Lambeosaurus coloring pages.