Ouranosaurus
Or-an-o-sor-us
Name meaning: Brave Lizard
Time Period: Aptian to Cenomanian (Early Cretaceous) 121-100 Mya
Locations: Niger-Echkar Formation
Taxonomy: Ornithopoda-Styracosterna-Hadrosauriformes
Subspecies: O. nigeriensis
Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~
Ouranosaurus the brave lizard is an unusual sail backed ornithopod It was around 23-27ft long and 2 tons. Ouranosaurus It sail was formed from long dorsal vertabrae and it's purpose is unknown, possibly being used for display, thermoregulation, or for some kind of aquatic adaptation like the Spinosaurus, however another semi-aquatic hadrosaur from the same formation Lurdusaurus has no such structure. Like all other hadrosauriforms Ouranosaurus was herbivorous having a wide mouth and teeth batteries for processing plant material. Ouranosaurus had a nasal protrubrence near the eyes which looks a bit like a small crest. The Eckar formation is a horrible place to live, the Birmingham of the Cretaceous. There were many predators like Suchomimus Kryptops Sarcosuchus Eocarcharia and plenty of other crocodylimorphs although Ouranosaurus is often inaccuratly depicted with later fauna from the region like Spinosaurus.
History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~
Ouranosaurus was discovered between 1965 and 1972 in a series of 5 expeditions lead by Phillippe Taquet. Many Ouranosaurus fossils were found with the most complete speciemens from the 1st and 4th expeditions which the genus was named after. Unlike most dinosaurs Ouranosaurus was descibed with lots of material making classification and restoration easy unlike most genuses described by two or 3 fragmentary bones.
Media Deptictions ~ ~ ~ ~
Jurassic World Ouranosaurus has two designs in the game a Frontier design added in the Claire's
Sanctuary Dlc for Jurassic World Evolution; and a Design from the Netflix show Camp Cretaceous from season 3. Im very fond of
the Frontier design the face isnt all that accurate but it looks cute. And the body has a massive hump instead of a sail that
along with it's thick forelimbs that make it look large, powerful, and lively. On the contrary, im not a fan of the Camp Cretaceous
design. The face looks too thin the body is too round because it's back it too high compared to where the sail should start; The sail on it's back
is small and pathetic and it has no intresting skins in the game. And it's quadrepedal when it's arms are too small to walk on. but the design is alright, objectively
I suppose. The scene it is used in is stupid where it attacks the main characters in the middle of a shipping dock where theres no food, at night, even though no one did anything to provoke it. As of now Ouranosaurus is not in Jurassic World Evolution 3 and Ouranosaurus was also in Jurassic Park Operations Genesis and the mobile games.
Prehistoric Kingdom Ouranosaurus was added in Update 9 alongside Muttaburasaurus, Spinosaurus, and Carcharodontosaurus. Ouranosaurus is primarly bipedal in this game even though it was likely most quadropedal in real life, I think this was because it shares most of it's animations with Muttaburasaurus from the same update.
Extras: ~ ~ ~ ~
Ouranosaurus by Andrea Di Natale on Sketchfab
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