Exiting the Yixian, we travel to one of the forgotten continents and arrive in the Elrhaz Formation. A place of floodplains and swamps, home to some of the strangest animals brought into the modern day. We start this menagerie of strangeness with the formation's most well-known herbivore, Ouranosaurus nigeriensis!
Ouranosaurus nigeriensis is among the stranger medium-sized herbivores that a park can acquire, featuring something no other Hadrosauriform has. A large sail-like structure running across most of its back gives this animal a hugely distinct outline amongst the extinct animals brought into the modern world. As a highly recognizable animal, Ouranosaurus quickly gained fame being a staple 4 star animal for several decades until it became a commonplace attraction in parks globally. At this point, the animal dropped slightly in popularity in the wake of newer animals, but surprisingly not by much, as such to this day Ouranosaurus still retains a solid 3 star rating.
The appearance of Ouranosaurus is, as mentioned previously, a striking one that is noticeable from a distance, with its large sail-like structure being covered with somewhat circular blotched pattern. These blotches are large and typically number at about 7 or 8 on each animal, however cases of animals with both more and fewer blotches have been recorded. Punctuating these blotches is a creamy-yellow body covered with darker striping along the front of the body and fading into a dark brown mix of stripes along the tail. Combined, these features make for a visually striking animal, more so than most other Dinosaurs brought back from extinction.
Socially Ouranosaurus shows traits typical to its group, being a social animal living in herds of 8 to 14 individuals that are often loud and quite active. Ouranosaurus groups feature a simple matriarchal hierarchy akin to a more primitive version of what is seen in modern Elephants, with herds being made up of over 80% females outside of nesting seasons and herds featuring only one or two males at any one time during these periods. During the mating and egg-laying season, male Ouranosaurus will seek to mate with as many females in either their own local herd or other foreign herds as possible. This has created a situation in which the modern Ouranosaurus in captivity don’t look exactly as they did when initially brought into the present day, as males were always willing to mate with almost any female, it allowed for parks to be selective in what animals were allowed to breed, thus resulting in the modern breed of Ouranosaurus with its distinctive reddish-black blotches and bodily stripes.
Thank you all for reading, expect more from us soon.
~Jagged Fang Designs~
Walk like an Egyptian except the species is actually Nigerian.