A New Dino Stamp Series

Posted: May 30, 2016 - 14:50 , by royal
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Acrotholus audeti – This small dinosaur possessed a skull bearing a 10-centimeter thick dome of solid bone over the eyes. The bipedal herbivore may have used the dome to butt heads with other members of its species. It inhabited the then coastal lowlands of Alberta about 85 million years ago.

Named in 2013 by David C. Evans (Royal Ontario Museum) and Michael J. Ryan (Cleveland Museum of Natural History), the Acrotholus audeti (Ack-RHO-tho-LUS) is one of five dinosaurs featured in Canada Post's new "Dinos of Canada" stamp series.

Acrotholus audeti, approximately six feet long and weighing about 40 kgs in life, was a plant-eating dinosaur that inhabited Alberta's lowlands about 85 million years ago. Acrotholus means “high dome”, referring to its dome-shaped skull, which is composed of solid bone over 10 centimeters (two inches) thick. Its domed skull was used for display to other members of its species, and it represents the oldest bone-headed dinosaur in North America, and possibly the world.

Acrotholus was one of a series of finds made by Dr. Evans and Dr. Ryan as part of their Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project, which aims to fill in gaps in of the record of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and study their evolution.  This project focuses on the palaeontology of some of the oldest dinosaur-bearing rocks in Alberta, which have been studied less intensely than those of the famous badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller.

Follow @DavidEvans_ROM and his field work this summer!