Edmontosaurus annectens (Cretaceous)

The Edmontosaurus annectens was a species of Hadrosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period in the modern US and Canada. Many Edmontosaurus annectens fossils come from the Hell Creek Formation, where they lived among Triceratops, T. Rexes, and other smaller ceratopsians and theropods.

One of the only dinosaur fossils ever found in Tennessee was a chevron (a part of the spine) from an Edmontosaurus annectens. It is thought that the animal had died near or in a river and was washed out into the Western Interior Seaway where it fossilized. You can see this chevron at Earth Experience Museum.

(Late Cretaceous)

Hadrosaurs, often called “duck-billed dinosaurs”, were herbivorous herding dinosaurs that lived in North America, Europe, and Asia during the late Cretaceous period. Hadrosaurs were grazers and had ‘dental batteries’ or stores of new teeth that would replace the old ones as they wore down. Paleontologists have been able to study Hadrosaur skin impressions to descern that their skin was scaly and bumpy. Many hadrosaurs had large head crests, some of which having hollow chambers inside. Some scientists think that species like the Parasaurolophus used its hollow head crest to amplify verbalizations, creating a loud horn-like call. Hadrosaurs typically walked on all for legs, but they were able to stand up on the larger hind legs at will.