Description

Maiasaura Juvenile Skeleton Replica measures 7 feet. Maiasaura Juvenile Skeleton Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. Private collection. Made in USA. Our precise skeleton can be used as a teaching tool, museum skeleton exhibit, home decor skeleton, or office decor skeleton. Skeleton is Mounted and crated. Item requires crating for shipping. Please call 509-951-3557 for shipping quote.

Maiasaura or Maiasaura peeblesorum is a large herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaur genus that lived in the area currently covered by the state of Montana in the Upper Cretaceous Period, about 76.7 million years ago. The first fossils of Maiasaura peeblesorum were discovered in 1978. The genus was named in 1979.

Maiasaura or Maiasaura peeblesorum were large, attaining a maximum known length of about 30 feet. They had a flat beak typical of hadrosaurids, and thick noses. They had a small, spiky crest in front of the eyes. This crest may have been used in headbutting contests between males during the breeding season.

Maiasaura or Maiasaura peeblesorum lived in herds and it raised its young in nesting colonies. The nests in the colonies were packed closely together, with the gap between being around 23 feet less than the length of the adult animal. The nests were made of earth and contained 30 to 40 eggs laid in a circular or spiral pattern. The eggs were about the size of ostrich eggs.

The eggs were incubated by the heat resulting from rotting vegetation placed into the nest by the parents, rather than a parent sitting on the nest.

Upon hatching, fossils of baby Maiasaura peeblesorum show that their legs were not fully developed and thus they were incapable of walking. Fossils also show that their teeth were partly worn, which means that the Maiasaura peeblesorum brought food to the nest.

The Maiasaura hatchlings grew from a size of 16 to 58 inches long in the span of their first year. At this point, or perhaps after another year, the animal left the nest. This high rate of growth may be evidence of warm bloodedness. The Maiasaura peeblesorum hatchlings had different facial proportions from the adults, with larger eyes and a shorter snout.

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Additional information

Weight 400 lbs
Dimensions 84 × 60 in
Maiasaura Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Suborder: †Ornithopoda
Family: †Hadrosauridae
Subfamily: †Saurolophinae
Tribe: †Brachylophosaurini
Genus: †Maiasaura
Type species: †Maiasaura peeblesorum
Conservation Status: Extinct