Maiasaura

Maiasaura is a large herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaur genus that lived in the area currently covered by the state of Montana in the Upper Cretaceous Period, about 76.7 million years ago.

The first fossils of Maiasaura were discovered in 1978. In 1979, the genus was named. The name refers to the find of nests with eggs, embryos and young animals, in a nesting colony. These showed that Maiasaurafed her young while they were in the nest, the first time such evidence was obtained for a dinosaur. Hundreds of bones of Maiasaura have been dug up.

Maiasaura was about nine metres long. Young animals walked on their hind legs, adults on all fours. Maiasaura was probably closely related to Brachylophosaurus.