cynthia the centrosaurus

vegan girl in a late cretaceous world!!

[centrosaurus-apertus]

Cynthia here!! I just saw this super sad book and it got me thinking... it is true!!

:(  All of my friends are dead!! And so am I.

–How am I writing this if I’m dead? ….It’s complicated okay?–

But yes, my friends and I all died during the K-T mass extinction around 65 MILLION years ago! There are many different theories spread around about this extinction! The K-T extinction was a period of time where all of the dinosaurs died! :(

Besides this mass extinction, many of my herd died due to a changing environment that caused my habitat to get drier. This caused many of us to get dehydrated.

It’s all very sad, but it’s good to be able to tell you all my story with my blog!! It’s kind of like I’m back from the dead ; )

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So... how do Centrosaurus apertus’ mate???

Wow! That’s a personal question..but I’ll answer it to the best of my abilities. I can only tell you information that humans already know…I signed a contract..it’s complicated.

The thin frills of the Centrosaurus apertus were debated of being used for intraspecies display as they were too thin to be used for defense. Frills are like very small horns and you can see them on around my head! Intraspecies display is for showing off to other Centrosauruses, kind of like how birds are colorful to attract mates or lizards will change color during mating season!

Also, some injuries that scientists found on the skulls of Centrosaurus apertus helped them infer that we had intraspecies combat during mating season. This means that some dinosaurs would fight each other in order to win a mate. This is kind of like one of those intense love triangles on “television” where they fight for the girl!

Overall, there isn’t much information about mating that I can tell you! C’mon scientists, you gotta do some more research so I can spill my juicy secrets!!

[green-with-envyy]

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ooo leaves!!

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What is a day-in-the-life of a Centrosaurus apertus like?

It’s pretty cool! 

Us Centrosaurus apertuses are a herding species! So I get to hang out with my herd all day long! We are herbivorous (only eat plants not animals!) so we don’t hunt just search for some tasty plants!! I walk on my four legs (I’m quadrupedal) and look for some stuff to eat!

Sometimes it’s scary because some other dinosaurs want to eat us! But our horns and our herding strategy keeps a lot of us safe and sound!  

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Selfies!

Okay, I didn’t take these. But that’s me!! Figured you guys could see what I looked like huh?? 

I think I look great!! I weigh about 3 tons, and I’m around 6 meters long!! 

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My Home!!

Cynthia here!! Looking back at where I used to live!! 

Dinosaur Provincial Park is in Alberta, Canada! 

Here are a few pictures of what my home looks like now. It’s called “Dinosaur” Provincial Park because so many different dinosaurs were found in the area!! Including me! In fact, the bonebeds of Centrosaurus apertus samples found in the park led to the discovery that we are a herding species! A bonebed is a bunch of bones found by each other.

One example is a skull of another Centrosaurus apertus, NMC 971, that was found in the Campanian terrestrial horizon of the park!

Back in my day (The Late Cretaceous Period), it didn’t look the same! The land was subtropical and full of lush forests. It was beautiful then and it still is today! 

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Who am I? What am I?

Ohmigosh! My first blog post! How exciting! My name is Cynthia and I’m a Centrosaurus Apertus!! Like, a dinosaur. Cool right??

Where do I fit in the classification of all of Earth’s wonderful creatures?? Oh I’m so glad you asked!! There is no better way to introduce myself to you! I’m going to tell you my scientific classification! This is like a list of things that describe me that goes from the least to most specific! There is a scientific classification for every living thing!

So, you may have guessed, I’m an animal!! This means that I am in the Kingdom Animalia.

More specific?? Okay whatever you ask for!

I’m in the Phylum Chordata. So are all vertebrates and a couple of other creatures like sea squirts. Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone

Next, I’m in the clade Dinosauria. Oh what’s that?? DINOSAURS!!

I’m bird-hipped, which means that I belong in the order Ornithischia!! This just describes how my hip bone is formed!

Okay, now we are getting closer, so I’m gonna sum this up! My family is Ceratopsidae and my subfamily is Centrosaurinae! Then I’m in another clade called Eucentrosaura and a tribe called Centrosaurini! These are all kinds of dinosaurs that I belong in the group of!

Finally, my genus!! Centrosaurus and my species Centrosaurus apertus!! This is the closest classification of who I am! 

OH WHAT ONE MORE!!

I’m Cynthia! <3  

THAT IS WHO I AM!!! And no one is arguing about this!