Corythosaurus

Corythosaurus acquired its name from the shape of the head crest on the back of its skull which resembles a Corinthian helmet from ancient Greece.‭ ‬Because this head crest was hollow,‭ ‬Corythosaurus is today classed as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid.‭ ‬ 
The lambeosaurine hadrosaurs which also include other famous genera such as Parasaurolophus as well as the type genus Lambeosaurus all have hollow crests,‭ ‬and like with these there is a recurring theory that this hollow crest may have been a resonance chamber for amplifying calls.‭ ‬Critics‭ ‬have stated that if this were true then lambeosaurine crests should be all the same,‭ ‬but this misses the fact that different shapes could have produced different types of call which would have enabled different genera of lambeosaurines to identify one another by sound alone.‭ ‬Also,‭ ‬one Corythosaurus specimen is noted for having a large eardrum but slender stares‭ (‬reptilian ear bone‭) ‬which indicates that hearing was well developed and probably one of the most important senses used.
      Additionally this may have allowed a single Corythosaurus to sound out a warning call to other nearby individuals at the sight of a predator.‭ ‬This would infer behaviour where Corythosaurus may have moved around in groups or even herds where the eyes of many individuals were looking out for danger,‭ ‬something that would significantly increase the survival chances of Corythosaurus over what they would have been if they were solitary animals.
      A more mundane explanation for the hollow head crest is that it was simply a way to reduce the crests weight.‭ ‬This would imply that Corythosaurus used the crest as a visual display,‭ ‬perhaps not only to attract mates but to identify other lambeosaurine hadrosaurids of its own genus from other similar dinosaurs,‭ ‬something that has also been suggested for variations in the horns and frills of ceratopsian dinosaurs that also lived in North America at the same time as Corythosaurus.‭ ‬Out of all the other currently known lambeosaurine dinosaurs Olorotitan is considered to be one of the closest relatives of Corythosaurus.
      The diet and ecosystem of dinosaurs like Corythosaurus is currently a matter of dispute.‭ ‬The classical view of Corythosaurus for example has been of a semi bipedal dinosaur that waded into the edges of swamps and lake to feed.‭ ‬This scenario stems back to the first descriptions of hadrosaur dinosaurs in the latter decades of the nineteenth century when the skulls,‭ ‬jaws and teeth were interpreted as being too weak‭ ‬to process anything but soft aquatic plants.‭ ‬This thinking was however flawed because many of the skulls and jaws examined were incomplete.‭ ‬Study in the latter half of the twentieth century and on-going into twenty-first century not only suggests that Corythosaurus and other hadrosaurs were capable of processing regular terrestrial vegetation like other herbivores,‭ ‬but fossil evidence in the form of stomach contents reveals that hadrosaurs would at least on occasion eat terrestrial plants from dryer inland habitats.
Category:Dinosaurs
Category:Extinct Animals
Category:Cretaceous Animals
Category:Canadian Animals
Category:Mesozoic Animals