Parasaurolophus dancing in a crater
A long time ago, over seven mountains, over seven craters, I wanted to experiment with sculpture. I took as my model one of the creatures living on Earth at that time - a charming Parasaurolophus. Here is the result of my work:
You are probably wondering now who this creature with such a long name was. Parasaurolophus was a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur that lived in North America and possibly Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 76.5–73 million years ago. It was a hadrosaurid, part of a diverse family of Cretaceous dinosaurs known for their range of bizarre head adornments.
Parasaurolophus is my favorite prehistoric creature, not only because it resembles a cute cross between a unicorn and a goose. The greatest secret is hidden by its unusual "horn". Of course, I mean its cranial crest, which protruded from the rear of the head and was made up of the premaxilla and nasal bones. Inside was an intricate arrangement of the nasal passages with different tubes leading from each nostril. Many hypotheses about the functions performed by this body part have been put forward.
And now pay attention! It is often believed that Parasaurolophus used its crest as a resonance chamber to produce low-frequency sounds. The large amount of material and data supports the hypothesis that the large tubular crest of the Parasaurolophus was a resonance chamber. Computer modeling of a well-preserved specimen of Parasaurolophus tubicen allowed to recreate the possible sound produced by its crest. The main path resonates at around 30 Hz, but the complex anatomy of the sinus produces the peaks and troughs of sound.
It sounds to me as if the Parasaurolophus comes into this world with a musical instrument on his head. This is one of my favorite dinosaur hypotheses (the other is that Barosaurus had 8 hearts - but not about that today). A long time ago, it inspired me to draw a comic book about Parasaurolophs. I portrayed them as gentle creatures who love to play their horns and dance. Take a look at the comic panel where I presented a cross-section of my character's skull. I made the complicated arrangement of the nasal passages similar to a trumpet.
My apartment, which I call the Nest, is in a rather secluded place. It's situated among vast stretches of fields and forests. A train passes here, and I hear it whistle a lot. Then I imagine being called by a rushing herd of Parasaurolophs. I invited one of them to dance in a crater. The structure of the materials I experimented with in creating this figurine is similar to fossils. I figured my favorite prehistoric creature would be the right model. How do you like this artwork?
