Name

Meaning: Corythosaurus means “helmet lizard”
Pronounced: ko-RITH-o-SAWR-us
Named By: Barnum Brown
When Named: 1914
Diet

Herbivore (plant-eater), perhaps eating pine needles, conifers, ginkgos, seeds, cycads, twigs, and magnolia leaves.
Size

Length: 30-33 feet (9-10 m) long
Height: 6.6 feet (2 m) tall at the hips
Weight: about 5 tons
When It Lived

Late Cretaceous period, about 80 to 65 million years ago.
Where It Lived

Fossils have been found in western North America, including Montana, USA, and Alberta, Canada.
Fossils

Corythosaurus was named by Barnum Brown in 1914 from a fossil found in Alberta, Canada. Fossils have been found, including ten skulls, other assorted bones, and fossilized skin with a pebbly texture.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Ornithopoda
  • Infraorder Iguanodontia - having spiked thumbs
  • Superfamily Hadrosauroidea - duck-billed dinosaurs
  • Family Lambeosaurinae - hollow-crested duckbills
  • Genus Corythosaurus
  • Species C. casuarius (type species named by Barnum Brown, 1914)
Interesting Facts

Corythosaurus had a hollow, bony crest on top of its long head in the shape of a helmet flattened on the sides. This duck-billed dinosaur walked and ran on two legs, and was a relatively fast dinosaur. It may have gone on all fours to forage for low-lying plants.
Links

A detailed page on Corythosaurus.
Corythosaurus coloring/information printout