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A herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaur of the genus Maiasaura of the Cretaceous Period. Remains of fossilized nests and juveniles suggest that the adults cared for their young.

[New Latin Māiasaura, good mother lizard, genus name : Greek maia, good mother; see mā- in Indo-European roots + New Latin saura, feminine of saurus, lizard (from Greek sauros).]


(Palaeontology) a species of large, herbivorous, duck-billed dinosaur


(mī′ə-sôr′ə) or mai·a·saur (mī′ə-sôr′)
A duck-billed dinosaur of the late Cretaceous Period of North America. Its remains suggest that the adults lived in herds and cared for their young in large nesting sites.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Despite the incessant summer rain, our team also managed to collect the partial skull of what we believe is the first evidence from Canada of the "Good Mother" hadrosaur, Maiasaura.
Then we drive back over the mountains, dreaming of maiasaura dinosaurs, Indian ponies, and, of course, Taylor and Bob.
One of Horner's discoveries was Maiasaura (the first use of the feminine "a" ending versus the masculine "us"), meaning "good mother lizard.
He named this kind of dinosaur Maiasaura (my-uh-SORE-uh), which means "good mother lizard.
The blocks, whose widths range up to 30 centimeters, come from a geologic formation in Montana that has yielded numerous bones of the duck-billed dinosaur Maiasaura.
A Tyrannosaurus rex shared a trailer with a velociraptor and a maiasaura family on the 15-mile journey along the Ventura Freeway from Woodland Hills for a six-month stay in Griffith Park.
Other exhibits show the development of a Maiasaura thighbone from birth, what colors dinosaurs might have been, and how dinosaurs migrated from the shores of an inland sea to dry, upland nesting colonies to feed and care for their young.
Because young Maiasaura of different ages and sizes were found in nests, some ages and sizes were found in nests, some scientists have concluded that parents were protecting and feeding thrir young until they were large enough to fend for themselves.
These newest additions include a 15-foot mother Maiasaura, a duck-billed dinosaur, nurturing her nest of hatching eggs and babies; an Albertosaurus, a close relative to the Tyrannosaurus rex; an Euoplocephalus, an armored dinosaur; 22-foot Tenontosaurus, a dinosaur with a lizardlike tail; two dueling 13-foot Pachycephalosaurus and a pack of flesh-eating, warm-blooded Deinonychus attacking a Tenontosaurus.