Naashoibitosaurus Characteristics

Naashoibitosaurus measured 30 feet (10 metres) in length and must have weighed around 2 - 3 tons. It was a huge duck-billed dinosaur who had a flattened head and a low nasal crest that peaked in front of its eyes. Naashoibitosaurus large hind legs and smaller front legs with hoof-like toes. It tail was long, heavy and stiff and would have been used to counter-balance when rearing up on its hind legs to feed on higher vegetation.

As a hadrosaurid, Naashoibitosaurus would have been a large bipedal/quadrupedal herbivore, eating plants with its specialized skull, grinding tough plant material with its many cheek teeth. Its teeth were continually replacing and self-sharpening. Plant material would have been cropped by its broad beak, and held in the jaws by a cheek-like organ. Feeding would have been from the ground up to 13 feet (4 metres) above.

A fossil but only a partial skull has been found and is now located in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

Naashoibitosaurus was named by Hunt and Lucas in 1993. The type species is N. ostromi. Naashoibitosaurus may be a variant of Kritosaurus.