Einiosaurus | Facts & Information

The dinosaur Einiosaurus belongs to the category of prehistoric horned animals – ceratopsids – and lived in the Mesozoic era, during the Upper Cretaceous Period, about 75 million years ago.

By its unmistakable appearance the dinosaur einiosaurus represented a great discovery for researchers, because it impresses primarily by the horn on the nose very large and curved towards the face, but also by the two bony protrusions that appear in the area above the eyes.

Behind the head the dinosaur had a capillary ornament in the form of a very large shield, whose weight was greatly diminished with the help of the two openings covered with thick and scaly skin.

The horn on the nose had a different shape than that found in other ceratopsids, such as the dinosaurs Styracosaurus and Centrosaurus, namely it was very strongly curved forward, was not straight nor pointed upwards.

The huge shield was bordered with small bony protrusions of the same size, positioned at equal distances from each other, and in the middle there were two long, sharp and thin horns. The role of this shield was to attract females during the breeding period, especially since it is suspected that it was also colored differently from the skin that covered and protected the rest of the body.

In young specimens the shield was not very developed, did not have bony protrusions and two long horns, but above the muzzle appeared a small stump of the horn on the nose, which with the passage of years would have reached the size of the adult specimens.

The hind limbs were longer and more muscular than the hind ones, all finished with sturdy, thick paws and fingers with hoofed claws.

The gait of this dinosaur was quadruped, and the head was held in a slightly bent position due to the presence of the shield behind the head. In the event of an attack by a predatory dinosaur, the animal used its long, powerful tail to strike its enemy, and its horns on the shield to protect its vulnerable neck area.

The researchers estimated the length of an adult Einiosaurus at 6 m and weight at 5 tons. The snout of this dinosaur ended with a horn-like parrot beak, with sharp edges that managed to cut even the toughest plants growing at ground level.

Then they were carried with the help of the flexible tongue into the area of the teeth on the two Jaws, where they were chewed and turned into a kind of paste that slid down the throat and into the stomach. When the teeth were broken or chopped, new ones grew back from the jaw bone below.

Einiosaurus Feed

This prehistoric animal lived in herds in the wooded areas of what is now North America, and its food was made up of plants at ground level.