Velafrons coahuilensis by Dinoraul

Vue • Animals • posted on Aug 28, 2009

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Description

Velafrons is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, about 73.5 million yearsago, of Mexico. It is known from a mostly complete skull and partial skeleton. It is the most complete dinosaur ever discovered in Mexico. The remains of Velafrons were discovered in a rugged, dry area of Coahuila (north-central Mexico). During the late Cretaceous, a large inland sea going from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico split North America in two. The new Dino had a hollow crest resembling the sail of a boat on the top of its skull, hence the name Velafrons coahuilensis ("sailed forehead from Coahuila"). Many duck-billed dinosaurs had this crest on the top of their head, crossed by long nasal passages. The crests could have enabled these dinos to emit trumpeted sounds (like in cranes and swans), aimed perhaps to attract mates. The young Velafrons was 9m (30 ft) long, but a full-grown adult could have been 10.7 m (35.7 ft) long. Velafrons closely resembled another duckbilled dinosaur called Corythosaurus that lived roughly 3 million years earlier in Canada. Modelled with Lightwave3D.