Parasaurolophus Dinosaur Coloring Page & PDF Sheet

Parasaurolophus Dinosaur: History & Fun Facts

Parasaurolophus lived across what is now Alberta, Utah, and New Mexico during the Late Cretaceous, roughly 76 to 73 million years ago, on river floodplains thick with ferns and flowering plants. A full-grown adult stretched about 30 to 35 feet from beak to tail and likely moved on all fours while grazing, rising onto its back legs for a burst of speed when a predator like Gorgosaurus came too close.

A Crest Built From Hollow Tubes

The feature that sets this dinosaur apart is the long, curved crest sweeping back from its skull, sometimes reaching nearly 6 feet in the largest specimens. Unlike solid bony ornaments on some other dinosaurs, this crest was hollow, built from the same nasal passages the animal breathed through, folded back through the tube before doubling forward again toward the snout.

A Built-In Horn for Herd Calls

Because air had to travel the full length of that looping tube before reaching the lungs, researchers who built physical and computer models of the crest found it could work like a natural trombone, producing a low, resonant honk. Herds likely used those calls to keep track of each other across dense Cretaceous forest, and crest size varied between individuals, which may have signaled age or sex at a glance.

A Duck-Billed Grazer's Jaw

Parasaurolophus belonged to the hadrosaur, or "duck-billed," family, named for a broad, flattened beak used to crop plants close to the ground. Behind that beak sat hundreds of small teeth packed into dental batteries, constantly replaced as they wore down from grinding tough conifer needles and horsetails.

Named by William Parks in 1922

Canadian paleontologist William Parks first described Parasaurolophus in 1922 from a skeleton found along Alberta's Red Deer River. Its name means "near crested lizard," a nod to its resemblance to the already-known Saurolophus. Because complete skulls with the crest intact are rare, several early reconstructions guessed at the crest's exact shape before more complete specimens confirmed the long, backward-curving form seen in museums today.

Three recognized species are known today, each identified largely by differences in crest length and curvature. That variation has helped paleontologists track how the species likely diverged across different river systems in western North America during the Late Cretaceous.

Herding Behavior on the Floodplain

Bonebeds containing multiple Parasaurolophus individuals of different ages suggest it traveled in mixed-age herds rather than alone, a common strategy among hadrosaurs for spotting approaching predators early across open floodplain terrain. A young Parasaurolophus likely had a shorter, less developed crest, growing the full curved tube gradually as it reached adult size and adult body length.

Coloring the Crested Duck-Bill

The crest is the standout shape to color, and kids can treat it as its own separate section running from the back of the head to well past the shoulders. The flattened, wide beak up front and the sturdy four-legged stance give the rest of the outline broad, simple areas that work well for a first pass of solid color before adding detail to the crest and beak.