Saurolophus

lizard crest

• sauros · Greek · lizard
• lophos · Greek · crest

Saurolophus means "lizard crest", from the Greek words sauros (lizard) and lophos (crest). It refers to the solid, spike-like bony crest that projects up and back from the top of the skull. Brown chose the name because of this distinctive crest.

Named by

Brown

Year named

1912

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stages

Campanian – Maastrichtian

Found in

Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Alberta, Canada (S. osborni), and Nemegt Formation, Mongolia (S. angustirostris)

A hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaur (a crested duck-billed dinosaur). The type species is S. osborni from Alberta; the Mongolian species S. angustirostris was named by Rozhdestvensky in 1952 and is sometimes considered a separate genus, Augustynolophus-like relatives aside, though it is commonly retained in Saurolophus. Augustynolophus, from California, is a close relative.