Colorado's Dinosaur.

Greetings. Theiophytalia was a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period. The genus contains a single species, Theiophytalia kerri, known to have existed in what is now the state of Colorado in the United States.

In 1878, James H. Kerr, a student of Colorado College in Colorado Springs found a partial ornithopod skull at the Garden of the Gods park in central Colorado. The skull, YPM 1887, was initially assigned as that of Camptosaurus amplus. However, subsequent microscopic comparisons of thin-sections of the Mesozoic formations in the Garden of the Gods showed that the specimen actually came from the Lytle Member of the Purgatoire Formation; therefore, the skull was Early Cretaceous in age, making the find completely independent from previous fossilized finds.

Detailed comparisons by paleontologists demonstrated that the skull of Theiophytalia kerri differed in a number of ways from that of Camptosaurus amplus; specifically a longer, heavier, and more rugose snout; a wider dorsal process on the maxilla; a proportionally smaller antorbital fenestra; and stouter quadrate, with a bulbous articulation for the lower jaw. As a direct result of these physiological differences, paleontologists put it into its own genus and species.

The specific name kerri honors James Hutchinson Kerr, the discoverer of the specimen.

With a reconstructed skull length of about forty-six centimeters,‭ ‬Theiophytalia kerri would have been a medium to large ornithopod dinosaur,‭ with adults measuring approximately seven meters in length, with weights of about three tons posited. The reptile actively ‬browsed upon vegetation growing at varying heights from the ground.‭ ‬T. kerri likely came into occasional contact with other dinosaurs such as Tenontosaurus and the armoured Gastonia, herbivorous species that were common in what is now Colorado during the Early Cretaceous Period. ‬Possible predatory threats to‭ ‬T. kerri may have come from pack-hunting dromaeosaurs such as Deinonychus and Acrocanthosaurus.

Theiophytalia kerri was in existence between 125 and 100.5 million years ago, quite a long length of time for a single species of complex animal. 

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

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