Brachylophosaurus

dinosaur · Late Cretaceous · duck-billed · fossil

Duck-billed dinosaur. Brachylophosaurus was a hadrosaurid dinosaur, meaning it had a flat, broad snout like a duck's bill that it used to chew plants.

Western North American resident. These dinosaurs lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now western North America, particularly in what are now Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA.

Skin preserved in stone. Scientists have found fossils of Brachylophosaurus with actual skin impressions pressed into the rock, which tells us what the dinosaur's texture felt like.

Massive group discovery. In Montana, researchers uncovered a bonebed containing about 800 Brachylophosaurus specimens, suggesting these dinosaurs may have lived and died together in large herds.

Named in 1953. The first official Brachylophosaurus was named by scientist Charles Mortram Sternberg based on a skull and skeleton he had found in Alberta back in 1936.