Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation updated 6/12/03
The Judith River Group at Dinosaur Provincial Park is an example of a very high diversity dinosaur assemblage; no known community anywhere demonstrates a comparable diversity. In the Campanian of Judith River of Alberta, common dinosaurs are the lambeosaurines Corythosaurus and Lambeosaurus, the hadrosaurines Prosaurolophus and Gryposaurus; the centrosaurine Centrosaurus, and the chasmosaurine, Chasmosaurus, the ankylosaurid Euoplocephalus, the nodosaurid Panoplosaurus and Edmontonia, and the theropods Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus. Others are less common and include the hadrosaurine Brachylophosaurus, the centrosaurines Styracosaurus and Monoclonius, the protoceratopsidea Leptoceratops, the ornithomimids Ornithomimus, Struthiomimus and Dromeiciomimus, and the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras. Still others are extremely rare, apart from tooth specimens: the lambeosaurine Parasaurolophus, and a variety of small theropods including Dromaeosaurus, Caenagnathus, Elmisaurus, Chirostenotes, Saurornitholestes, and Troodon.
Albertosaurus at 27 feet long, was a smaller version of Tyrannosaurus, lighter and probably faster, with puny arms but more teeth in a relatively broad snout. It probably preyed upon Edmontosaurus, Saurolophus, Hypacrosaurus and Stegoceras. It may have been been displaced when Tyrannosaurus migrated from Asia later in the Cretaceous. Struthiomimus had drooping front legs with long toes. It had powerful curved claws on fingers and lived on river banks, forests, sandy plains and humid lowlands. It had a long toothless jaw similar to modern birds, and may have had a horny beak and perhaps also ate plants. It was able to run at up to 40 km/h
Schleich Styracosaurus and Albertosaurus. Kabaya Struthiomimus.
Styracosaurus was a relatively small horned dinosaur with a greatly extended neck frill. The best known of the ostrich dinosaurs is Struthiomimus. It was toothless and fast.
Starting on the left we have Play Vision, Battat, Eema from Disney, Starlux, DinoQuest and Bullyland styracosaurs. The Struthiomimus is from the second series of Choc Egg figures.
Chasmosaurus and Monoclonius were relatives of Styracosaurus. Chasmosaurus averaged about 17feet in length and was the most widespread of the horned dinossaurs with a large variety of species. Monoclonius one of the larger horned dinosaurs. Fossils are rare and most restorations are based on the better known Centrosaurus. The main difference being the lack of hooks at the top of the frill.
Left is the Marolin Monoclonius form Germany. The original figures were created in the 1920's but later reproduced by the East German Leipzig Museum. The Struthiomimus is a Marx reproduction. The orange Chasmosaur is from the Oriential Trading Company series. The blue Chasmosaur was made in China.
The lambeosaurines are well known for large bone beds that are taken to indicate a herding social structure at least seasonably.
Small scale series of figures are popular currently. Center is the green Kaiyodo Choco Egg figure. The chubby purple figure is a KM. In back are 3 Jurassic Park figures. The orange figure from the play set, the yellow metal die cast and hidden behind the Kaiyodo is a brown metal Match box figure.