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Description
Scientific name: Ouranosaurus nigeriensis
Diet: plants (at the Zoo you can feed them vegetables and hay)
Projected natural lifespan: 21 years
Length: 7 meters (~23 feet)
Weight: 2.2 tonnes (~2.4 tons)
Locality: Tenere, Niger (Elrhaz Formation), 125 Ma (Early Cretaceous Aptian)
Exhibit: Petting Zoo

About:
Ouranosaurus is quite a unique animal. Though it looks like a hadrosaur, it was actually a less advanced iguanodont. It is best known for the hump on its back.

Description and behavior:
Though not exactly a hadrosaur, it already has the body shape characteristic of the group, down to the beaked, duck-like bill on the front of the mouth. This mouth was used to chop up water plants that grew abundantly in the swamps of its home. Like a hadrosaur, Ouranosaurus could easily graze off a sizable amount of water plants in a short amount of time. Since it spent most of its time in the water, it could be classified as "semi-aquatic", though only about at the same level as a hippopotamus, as it wasn't a competent swimmer. One reason for this is the hump on its back, which made it very heavy, also forcing it into an almost permanent quadrupedal position. This hump served multiple purposes: one, to store fat for lean seasons, second, for males to display to females during the mating season, and third as predator deterrent, using the conspicuous eye spot to ward attackers off.

At the Zoo:
Three female juvenile Ouranosaurus, Jenna, Othon and Waran, are available for kids to feed and pet at the Petting Zoo. A mated pair, the parents of the juveniles, are kept behind the scenes for research.

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The behavior is inspired by cows, ducks, hippos, camels, chameleons and butterflyfish.

The skeletal I used belongs to DrScottHartman .

The mass estimate comes from a deviation by Green-Mamba .

Description
Scientific name: Ouranosaurus nigeriensis
Diet: plants (at the Zoo you can feed them vegetables and hay)
Projected natural lifespan: 21 years
Length: 7 meters (~23 feet)
Weight: 2.2 tonnes (~2.4 tons)
Locality: Tenere, Niger (Elrhaz Formation), 125 Ma (Early Cretaceous Aptian)
Exhibit: Petting Zoo

About:
Ouranosaurus is quite a unique animal. Though it looks like a hadrosaur, it was actually a less advanced iguanodont. It is best known for the hump on its back.

Description and behavior:
Though not exactly a hadrosaur, it already has the body shape characteristic of the group, down to the beaked, duck-like bill on the front of the mouth. This mouth was used to chop up water plants that grew abundantly in the swamps of its home. Like a hadrosaur, Ouranosaurus could easily graze off a sizable amount of water plants in a short amount of time. Since it spent most of its time in the water, it could be classified as "semi-aquatic", though only about at the same level as a hippopotamus, as it wasn't a competent swimmer. One reason for this is the hump on its back, which made it very heavy, also forcing it into an almost permanent quadrupedal position. This hump served multiple purposes: one, to store fat for lean seasons, second, for males to display to females during the mating season, and third as predator deterrent, using the conspicuous eye spot to ward attackers off.

At the Zoo:
Three female juvenile Ouranosaurus, Jenna, Othon and Waran, are available for kids to feed and pet at the Petting Zoo. A mated pair, the parents of the juveniles, are kept behind the scenes for research.

----

The behavior is inspired by cows, ducks, hippos, camels, chameleons and butterflyfish.

The skeletal I used belongs to DrScottHartman .

The mass estimate comes from a deviation by Green-Mamba .