CREATURES MENTIONED IN THE BOOK

ankylosaurs (AN-kye-loh-sawrs):

A group of armoured, plant-eating dinosaurs that existed from the mid-Jurassic to the late Cretaceous Periods. Ankylosaurus was a huge armoured dinosaur, measuring about 7.5–10.7 m long, 1.8 m wide and 1.2 m tall; it weighed roughly 3–4 tonnes. Its entire top side was heavily protected from carnivores with thick, oval plates embedded (fused) in its leathery skin, two rows of spikes along its body, large horns that projected from the back of the head, and a clublike tail. It even had bony plates as protection for its eyes. Only its underbelly was unplated. Flipping it over was the only way to wound it.

basilemys (BAH-zil-emm-ees):

A tortoise-like creature with a shell up to 1.5 metres across. This is the largest known fossil turtle from the Frenchman River Valley.

borealosuchus (BOR-ee-al-o-such-us):

A crocodile in existence in the late Cretaceous Period in Saskatchewan. This crocodile would be little compared to its earlier ancestors, about two to three metres in length. It would be running from a T. rex as opposed to taking it head-on like the larger crocodiles.

champosaurs (CHAMP–oh-SAWRS):

Most of the champosaurs are fairly small, reaching only about 1.5 meters in length, but some specimens over three meters (about 10 feet) in length have been recently found in North Dakota. They had long, narrow jaws with fine, pointed teeth, and closely resemble the modern gavial of India. They may look like crocodiles, but are not closely related to them. Champosaurs fed on fish, snails, mollusks, and turtles. They lived in Saskatchewan from about 75 million years ago to about 55 million years ago.

cimoloptertx (sim-oh-LOP-ter-icks) (“Cretaceous wing”):

An early bird resembling typical shorebirds of today and found in the late Cretaceous Period in Saskatchewan. These birds had long, slender bills and long, strong legs for wading and running. They probably probed in the sand or mud for food.

corythosaurus (co-RITH-oh-SAWR-us) (“Helmet lizard”):

Corythosaurus was a large plant-eating duck-billed dinosaur that probably fed on palm leaves, pine needles, seeds, cycad ferns, twigs, magnolia leaves and fruit. It may have weighed up to 5 tonnes and was about 2 metres tall at the hips and 9 to 10 metres long. (NB: Corythosaurus are known from slightly older sediments.)

dromaeosaurus (DRO-mee-o-SAWR-us) (“fast-running lizard”):

Dromaeosaurus was a small, fast, meat-eating, theropod dinosaur about with sickle-like toe claws, sharp teeth, and big eyes. It lived during the late Cretaceous Period and was about a half a metre tall at the hips and 1.8 m (6 feet) long, weighing roughly 15 kg. Fossils have been found in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana. They were very smart, deadly dinosaurs and may have hunted in packs.

edmontosaurus (ed-MON-toh-SAWR-us) (“Edmonton [rock formation] lizard”):

A large, plant-eating member of the duckbill dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs that lived about 73 to 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period in western North America. It had hundreds of teeth crowded together in the huge jaw, enabling it to eat tough leaves and other vegetation. This flat-headed duckbill grew to 13 metres and weighed 3.1 tonnes. It may have had anywhere from 800 to 1600 teeth. Edmontosaurus Saskatchewanensis, named in 1926 by Sternberg, is the only identified species of Edmontosaurus so far known from Saskatchewan.

garfish (A.S. gar, “spear”):

Garfish is a name commonly given to certain fishes with long, narrow bodies and bony, sharp-toothed beaks. Primarily freshwater fish, today the largest tropical gar reach lengths of 3.7 metres. They are a primitive fish that have existed for millions of years. They have needlelike teeth, a dorsal fin that sits far back on the heavily scaled body. They are able to breathe in stagnant water, and their roe is poisonous to many animals, including humans.

hadrosaurs (HAD-roh-SAWRS)(“bulky lizards”):

Hadrosaurs were a family of duck-billed dinosaurs that ranged from seven to ten metres long and lived in the late Cretaceous Period. They appear to have been highly social creatures, laying eggs in nests communally. Nests with eggs have been found in both Alberta and Montana. The only known hadrosaur in Saskatchewan is the Edmontosaurus Saskatchewanensis (see description above).

hesperonis (HES-per-OR-nis) (“western bird”):

Hesperornithids were a family of large flightless birds that swam in the oceans of the late Cretaceous and preyed on small fish. It has been found in the Upper Cretaceous of Western Kansas and Saskatchewan. It is likely that they swam and fed much like modern penguins. They were also apparently limited to the Northern Hemisphere, much like penguins are limited to the Southern Hemisphere today.

ichthyornis (ik-thee-ORN-is) (meaning “fish bird”):

Ichthyornis were toothed, tern-like birds, with large beaks and heads, dating from the Cretaceous Period. Although only about 20 cm long, they were powerful flyers and the oldest-known birds to a keeled breastbone (sternum) similar to modern birds. It lived in flocks nesting on shorelines, and hunted for fish over the seas. Fossils have been found in Kansas and Texas and Alberta,.

mosasaurs (MOES-ah-SAWRS):

Mosasaurs were a group of giant, lizard-like marine reptiles that extended 12.5 to 17.6 metres long. They were not dinosaurs, but may be related to snakes and monitor lizards. They were powerful swimmers, adapted to living in shallow seas. These carnivores (meat-eaters) still breathed air. A short-lived line of reptiles, they became extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago.

pteranodons (tair-AH-no-dons):

Pteranodons were large members of the pterosaur family from the Cretaceous Period. They were flying prehistoric reptiles, not dinosaurs, toothless hunters who scooped up fish from the seas. About 1.8 m long, they had a 7.8 m wing-span.

pterodactylus (ter-oh-DAK-til-us) (“winged finger”):

A flying, prehistoric reptile was a member of the pterosaurs group, with a wingspan that spread up to .75 metres. The wing was made up of skin stretched along the body between the hind limb and a very long fourth digit of the forelimb. They lived during the late Jurassic period.

pterosaurs (TER-o-SAWRS) (“winged lizards”):

Flying reptiles that included Pteranodons and Pterodactylus, they were the largest vertebrates ever known to fly. They lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous Period.

purgatorius (pur-go-TOR-ee-us):

A small, rodent-sized mammal from the Cretaceous Period, they may have been about ten centimetres long and probably weighed no more than 20 grams. They fed on insects. Some have suggested that this mammal may have been the earliest primate known.

“scotty”:

Scotty is the Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in 1991 near Eastend, Saskatchewan by a schoolteacher. Surrounded by cement-like ironstone and sandstone, it was not unearthed until 1994–95 and was found to be one of the most complete T. rex skeletons of only twelve such discoveries in the world. At this time, the first coprolite – or fossilized dung – that can be attributed to a T. rex was also found.

stegoceras (STEG-oh-CEER-us) (“roofed horn”):

A bipedal, herbivorous, dome-headed, plant-eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period about 76 to 65 million years ago. The Stegoceras was about two metres long and lived in what is now Alberta. Its large head housed a thick skull, a relatively large brain, and large eyes. Its skull was about 8 centimetres thick. Males had thicker domes than females, and older Stegoceras had thicker domes than younger ones. Stegoceras had a fringe of horny knobs along the rear of its skull. It had short forelimbs and a large, stiff tail. Stegoceras grew to be about 2.1 metres long and 1.2 metres tall. This plant-eater weighed roughly 78 kilograms. (Not to be confused with a Stegosaurus [pronounced STEG-oh-SAWR-us], meaning “roof lizard,” a plant-eating dinosaur with armoured plates along its back and tall spikes that lived during the Jurassic Period, about 156 to 150 million years ago.)

stygimoloch (STIJ-eh-MOLL-uk) (“thorny devil” or “demon from the River Styx”):

This unusual-looking plant-eating dinosaur lived in the woodlands. It had a domed head with bumps on its skull, which was rimmed with many bony spikes up to 100 mm long. It was about 3 metres long, and weighed about 50–75 kg. This pachycphalosaurid dinosaur lived during the very late Cretaceous period, about 68 million–65 million years ago. Only parts of Stygimoloch’s skull have been found in Montana and Wyoming and in Alberta. The Stygimoloch was named after the River Styx of Greek mythology and because it was found near Hell Creek.

thescelosaurus (THES-ke-loh-SAWR-us) (“Marvellous lizard”):

This plant-eating dinosaur had a small head, a bulky body that was 3­–4 metres long, and less than one metre tall at the hips. A member of the ceratopsian group, it also had a long, pointed tail and shorter arms and could probably run at about 50 km/hr for an extended time. Two partial skeletons have been found in Saskatchewan.

torosaurus (TOR-oh-SAW-rus) (“pierced lizard”):

Torosaurus had a strong toothless beak that was able to handle the toughest vegetation including small branches. A member of the ceratopsian group, it had a fierce appearance due to the two brow horns on its enormous 2.5 metre skull, a short nose horn, and a long-frilled crest. Its powerful legs were shorter at the front and longer at the back, which gave it a very stable posture. Torosaurus could chew well with its cheek teeth. They lived about 70–65 million years ago, and fossils have been found in the United States in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and in Canada in Saskatchewan.

triceratops (tri-SER-uh-tops):

Triceratops was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur with a bony neck frill that lived about 72 to 65 million years ago. From the ceratopsian group, this plant-eater was about 8 metres long, 3 metres tall, and weighed from 6–12 tonnes. A
relatively slow dinosaur, it had had three horns on its head and its parrot-like beak held many cheek teeth and a set of powerful jaws. It had a short, pointed tail, a bulky body, column-like legs with hoof-like claws. Many Triceratops fossils have been found, mostly in the western United States an in western Canada, including Saskatchewan.

troodon (TROH-oh-don):

A very smart, human-sized, meat-eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period. Fossils of Troodon have been found in Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan. It may have been one of the smartest dinosaurs, because it had a large brain compared to its body size.

tyrannosaurus rex (tye-RAN-oh-SAWR-us recks or Tie-ran-owe-saw-rus-recks) (“tyrant lizard king”):

A huge, meat-eating theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period. The largest meat-eater that has ever been, it stood 5–7 metres tall on its great clawed feet and had terrible, dagger-like teeth, 15 centimetres long. Tyrannosaurus rex was roughly 5–7 tons in weight. The enormous skull was about 1.5 metres long. The eye sockets in the skull are 10.2 centimetres across; the eyeballs would have been about 7.6 centimetres in diameter.

zapsalis (ZAP-sa-lis) (“through shears”):

A meat-eating dinosaur (a theropod) that lived during the Cretaceous Period. This theropod was found in the Judith River Formation, Montana in 1876. It is only known through its teeth and is currently classified as a troodontid.