Museum of Geology & Natural History,

Dinosaurs: Edmontosaurus

West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) Museum Receives Donation of Edmontosaurus

Edmontosaurus (Hannah)
Age: Upper Cretaceous
Fomation: Hell Creek Formation
Locality: Bowman County, North Dakota
Recovered, Prepared, and Mounted By: Ray Garton, Steve Nicklas, and Team
With Very Special Thanks To: Mary Ellen Garton, Robert Pyle, E.R. Garton, Hubert Grubb, Jim Chiera, Rob Sula, Rob Peterson, Malcolm Dulock, James Wyatt, Carl Smith, and the Staff of the WVGES
Donated By: Michael and Mercedes Smith of Danville, Kentucky

Hannah is a species of Edmontosaurus, one of the duckbilled or hadrosaur dinosaurs. Edmontosaurus was up to 42 feet long, about 10 feet tall at the hip, weighed 3.5 tons, and was easily 16 to 18 feet tall when erect. Hannah was a biped that could also walk on all four legs perhaps to graze on low-lying plants. Edmontosaurus may have lived in large herds for protection from the largest predator of the day, Tyrannosaurus rex. Hannah was one of the last of the dinosaurs and is 67 to 65 million years old. Based on the location and condition of the skeleton, along with some associated freshwater clams and plant fossils, we believe that Hannah died near a river bank. After the flesh decomposed, the bones were scattered and some washed away. The bones were later covered by silt from repeated flooding, burying the bones deeper, and over time the bones fossilized. Millions of years later, 2003 to be exact, some of the bones were exposed by erosion and Hannah was discovered. Eighty percent of the bones in this skeleton are real including the skull, front arm and hand, most of the vertebra, pelvis area, and parts of the tibia. This is the only real dinosaur skeleton on display in West Virginia.

Shown below are photographs taken during the recovery and preparation of the Edmontosaurus skeleton, and photographs of the mounted Edmontosaurus skeleton at the WVGES Museum.