Abydosaurus mcintoshi

Abydosaurus was discovered in the Cedar Mountain Formation. A plant-eating sauropod (long-necked dinosaur) with narrow teeth, Abydosaurus lived during the Cretaceous, which makes it the most recent Dinosaur National Monument dinosaur in terms of geologic time.

Abydosaurus refers to the town of Abydos, the Greek name for what is now El Araba el Madfuna. Just as the goddess Osiris overlooked the Nile River there, Abydosaurus was found overlooking the Green River at Dinosaur. Paleontologist Jack McIntosh is honored by the species name.

 

The two sides of this Abydosaurus skull are not mirror images as you might expect. Despite the obvious distortion, paleontologists are lucky to have found this skull at all.

 

So far, four individual Abydosaurus specimens have been found, two of which have complete skulls. These skulls are the first complete sauropod skulls from the Cretaceous (last 80 million years in the Age of Dinosaurs) in the Western hemisphere. Skulls are often destroyed due to the fragile nature of the bones. If the skull is not destroyed, it is usually flattened by sediments piling on top of it. It is incredibly rare to find skulls in such good condition, especially as part of the first individual found.

 

Cretaceous Fact

The neck bones found with the skull were heavily eroded. Fortunately, the skull had rotated on its side before burial and so was not damaged.

 

For More Information

Read the scientific paper describing Abydosaurus. An Abydosaurus skull cast is currently on display in the Quarry Exhibit Hall.