Corythosaurus – A Well-Known Duck-Billed Dinosaur

Corythosaurus was first named and described in 1914 by the American palaeontologist Barnum Brown, following the discovery of a nearly complete fossilised skeleton two years earlier.  A member of the Hadrosauridae, a number of species have been assigned to this genera, perhaps the best known is Corythosaurus casuarius.  More than twenty very well preserved specimens have been discovered to date, the relative abundance of fossil remains has led scientists to suggest that this plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur lived close to rivers, which would have given these animals a greater fossil preservation potential than other species of hadrosaur that inhabited upland areas.

Corythosaurus

The dinosaur was named after its distinctive head crest which resembled a helmet.  Measuring up to ten metres in length this was one of the largest Lambeosaurinae.

A Scale Drawing of Corythosaurus

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of Corythosaurus and other members of the Hadrosauridae: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Models.