The area known as Egg Mountain is located in Montana just south of the town of Choteau. It is an outcropping of the Two Medicine Formation, which is present in much of northwestern Montana.
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What is Egg Mountain in Montana?
Egg Mountain is a locality in the Two Medicine Formation, a 600 meter thick package of rocks that were deposited in western Montana from around 83 to 75 million years ago in the Campanian epoch of the Late Cretaceous period. This is about 8 million years before T.
How many eggs did maiasaura lay?
The nests were made of earth and contained 30 to 40 eggs laid in a circular or spiral pattern. The eggs were about the size of ostrich eggs.
Where is the Two Medicine Formation?
The Two Medicine Formation is a geologic formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma and 70.6 ± 3.4 Ma (million years ago), during Campanian (Late Cretaceous) time.
What is the Montana state dinosaur?
duck-billed dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum
1-1-509. State fossil. The duck-billed dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum is the official Montana state fossil.
Why is Egg Mountain near Choteau famous?
The area known as Egg Mountain is located in Montana just south of the town of Choteau.These nests belonged to a dinosaur which has been named Maiasaura peeblesorum—the state fossil of Montana—which was discovered at Egg Mountain several months before the eggs themselves were found.
Where was the maiasaura found?
Montana
Maiasaura was a herbivore. It lived in the Cretaceous period and inhabited North America. Its fossils have been found in places such as Montana. This dinosaur was named “The Good Mother” because there is evidence that she looked after her nest of eggs very well.
What dinosaur was the best mother?
Maiasaura
Immortalized as the “good mother dinosaur,” Maiasaura was a typical hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, of late Cretaceous North America.
Was Maiasaura a good mother?
Maiasaura was formerly named and described by American palaeontologists Jack Horner and Robert Makela in 1979. As this dinosaur was such a good mother, and since the fossilised adults were believed to be female, this dinosaur was named using the Latinised female gender.
What did the Maiasaura eat?
plants
Maiasaura were herbivores, which means they ate plants instead of meat. They lived in the Late Cretaceous Period, approximately 80 million years ago, in North America. Maiasaura had a toothless beak for snipping plants and hundreds of teeth designed for chewing and grinding.
How did Two Medicine Lake get its name?
TWO MEDICINE CREEK (Lakes, Pass) — This name is reported to have been derived from the name “Two Medicine Lodge Creek,” so called because at one time there were two “medicine lodges” located on either side of the creek.
What county is Polebridge Montana in?
Flathead County, Montana
Polebridge is an unincorporated community in Flathead County, Montana, United States, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Columbia Falls in the northwestern part of the state.
How was the maiasaura discovered?
Maiasaura was discovered by dinosaur paleontologist Jack Horner (paleontologic advisor for the Jurassic Park movies). He named the dinosaur after finding a series of nests with remains of eggshells and hatchlings. This was the first proof of giant dinosaurs raising and feeding their young.
What is the Wyoming state fossil?
Knightia
Knightia is the Wyoming state fossil of Wyoming and the most abundant vertebrate fossil in the world. Cutthroat Trout: is a freshwater fish belonging to the Salmonidae family and our native to the western United States. It is also the Wyoming state fish and the only trout native to Wyoming.
Why was maiasaura important?
Adults grew to over thirty feet in length and weighed three tons. Paleontology circles were stunned when Montana was found to be the home of one of the most important dinosaur discoveries.This is the reason the name Maiasaura, which means “good mother lizard,” was chosen for this dinosaur.
Does every state have a state fossil?
Most American states have made a state fossil designation, in many cases during the 1980s. It is common to designate one species in which fossilization has occurred, rather than a single specimen, or a category of fossils not limited to a single species.
Who discovered the maiasaura Peeblesorum?
Maiasaura was discovered by dinosaur paleontologist Jack Horner and Robert Makela. The original discovery comprised 15 hatchlings found in a fossilized nest, and subsequent visits to the site yieled fossilized eggs, more hatchlings, sub-adult, and adult Maiasaura.
The behavior of organisms can also be deduced from fossil evidence. Paleontologists suggest that hadrosaurs, duck-billed dinosaurs, lived in large herds, for instance. They made this hypothesis after observing evidence of social behavior,including a single site with approximately 10,000 skeletons.
How was Dinosaur Provincial Park formed?
The Dinosaur Park Formation is composed of sediments that were derived from the erosion of the mountains to the west. It was deposited on an alluvial to coastal plain by river systems that flowed eastward and southeastward to the Bearpaw Sea, a large inland sea that was part of the Western Interior Seaway.
What period did the maiasaura live in?
86.3 million years ago – 70.6 million years ago (Santonian – Campanian)
What type of fossil is the maiasaura?
Maiasaura, (genus Maiasaura), duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) found as fossils from the Late Cretaceous Period (about 100 million to 65.5 million years old) of North America and whose discovery led to the theory that these bipedal herbivores cared for their young.
