|
"Only now do we know the true story- Megarachne was a giant prehistoric sea scorpion." |
Ouranosaurus was a duck-billed plant-eater that grazed during the Cretaceous Period. Meat-eating dinosaurs saw this bulky beast as a potential filling meal-until the predators were jabbed by the sharp spikes on ouranosaurus' front feet. This dino also had a flap of skin, called a sail, on its back that controlled its body temperature.
Thumbs Out: The inside edges of this creature's front legs were equipped with sharp "thumb" spikes. These could have been dangerous weapons, especially if ouranosaurus jabbed them into an attacker's eyes.
Salad Eater: Ouranosaurus' mouth ended in a wide beak with sharpened edges. This helped the dinosaur grab large mouthfuls of leaves and clip them from bushes and trees.
Sailing in the Cool Breeze[]
A long snout and rows of tough teeth made this dino a great grazer.
Tall, bony spikes rose from Ouranosaurus' spine, and scientists believe that they formed a skin-covered sail that ran down its back. Cold-blooded, reptiles rely on the temperatures around them to maintain their own body temperature. This dinosaur's sail would have been loaded with blood vessels that collected heat from the sun on cool days and let heat escape its body during warmer periods.
Big League Chewer: When this dinosaur chewed, the teeth in its upper jaw slid outward as teeth in its lower jaw ground against them, mashing even the toughest leaves and stems into an easy-to-swallow pulp.
Stand Up: Ouranosaurus' hind legs were heavily muscled. The dino could stand up and walk on its hind legs to reach high parts of trees or run away from an attacking meat-eater.
Timeline[]
Ouranosaurus lived 115 to 110 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period.
Trading Card[]
Trivia[]
- It is suggested on the knowledge card that Ouranosaurus used its sail to regulate its cold-blooded temperature. It is now believed that dinosaurs are warm-blooded. The sail, therefore, remains of heavy debate. The two most common traditional-sail theories are that it is still used to keep warm and cool but in a warm-blooded sense and that it is display. Increasingly popular, however, is the thought that it didn't have a sail at all: its spine resembles that of a bison more than other sailed prehistoric creatures like Spinosaurus, so it may have had a similar hump of muscle.
- The Ouranosaurus is featured as prey on the back of the Spinosaurus card.
- Ouranosaurus is an African cousin of the Iguanodon.