Cory and Edmont

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Characters:

Corythosaurus: Cory
Had rosaurid-duck bill dino
toothless bill, large number of grinding teeth
"helmet lizard because of distinctive tall narrow hollow crest
ate tough plants
long snout curved around back into the mouth; possible elephant like calls
Montana; Canada


Edmontosaurus: Edmont
duck bill dinosaur; toothless beak
teeth farther back in the mouth
fed like ducks in muddy ponds
used beaks like ducks
weighed between 2 and 3 tons
nest of D revealed appears that young remained with parents for some time;
stayed close to the nest to be brought food or searched food and returned to nest for protection

one of largest duck bill dinosaurs may have had fleshy snout


Lambeosaurus
Lambeo
duckbill; hatched shaped crest, spine ran backward from it; neck frill may have grown from this
Montana, Alberta

Maiasaura, a “good mother lizard,"baby dinosaurs were found around mound shaped nest. Family arrangements where young remained by nest after hatching


The Story

During the long time ago,
when the dinosaurs roamed the earth
for what may have been billions of years,
things seemed very different from what they are now.
And even though paleontologists think they may have been able to tell us
how dinosaurs look, by looking at bones, and
putting together the ancient pieces of fossils and footsteps
that have been found in different places around the world,
they can tell us only what they might
think about colors, shapes or
textures of the skin or feathers
these ancient animals may have had,
nor can they tell us just exactly how to
I m a g i n e how the dinosaurs might have
behaved and thought.

With clues from animals that we know on the earth today,
these scientists can only
t a k e a g u e s s what might have gone on
in the long time past, and
using clues from what we
k n o w about ourselves and the way we think and act,
we might be able to
g u e s s at how the dinosaurs might have thought
if they had been human, with brains like ours that could be used to
t h i n k about things and make choices.

Nevertheless, when we
I m a g i n e what it might have been like,
and when we
I m a g i n e that the dinosaurs may have acted,
and thought like we do today, we can
l e a r n new things by watching how they might be.

When we do this, now, we can
I m a g i n e a time when the duck bill dinosaurs
wandered the earth and how it must have
looked very natural to them, then,
for the duck bill dinosaurs to scoop out food
from large ponds or muddy swamp in their duck like mouths.
But to us now, it would
s e e m a m a z i n g to see
such a large animal behave like the ducks
we like to w a t c h today.

I m a g i n e a thirty foot long duck,
spread out over the length of a basketball court,
scooping up food from a pond of water
in the way that a duck might be seen
scooping popcorn scattered
on the rippling pond by school children.

And if you can I m a g i n e this,
you might be able to
I m a g i n e that
there were three duck billed dinosaurs

who lived on the same continent
around the same time, and that
they might have even known each other
at different times during their lives, back then.


Corey, Edmont and Lambeo
all came from nests of eggs which
their mothers had carefully arranged and
given them shelter and protection until the hatchlings
grew enough to find their own food and shelter.


They may have
stayed together in family groups
long after the hatchlings could
take care of themselves.
Perhaps when Corey's family of duck bills hatched out and
began to s e e a rather different looking egg
s i t t i n g so very quietly with them in their own nest,
they might have began to t h I n k
that was the way it was supposed to be.
Their mother seemed to have no problem with it,
as she guarded that strange egg
just as carefully as she had her own,
as she watched over the hatchlings, as if there were no difference.

But as time went on
and Edmont’s brother and sister hatchlings began to grow,
they started to
notice many differences.
Even though Edmont came from an egg,
somewhat like their own,
and had some of the same marks and shapes
that each of them had,
there began to appear more and more differences.

For one thing, Edmont was
so very much larger than Corey's siblings,
and when he walked
he had a certain way of moving
that did not seem quite like their way.
Through their birth season and into the next,
these siblings stayed near one another, a l l o w I n g the mother to bring them food and t e a c h them the things they would need to know to
protect themselves and take care of themselves.

The more Edmont grew,
the more different he looked from the others in his nest.
When he began to look at his reflection in the water of the pond,
he would compare it to Corey's and
he knew how different he was becoming.
He began to w o n d e r why he was different,
as the mother duck bill had never told him
his egg had come from a different mother.
He thought it was important for him to look just like the other hatchlings, and he began to feel very badly that he did not.

Corey's siblings began to w a t c h Edmont very closely as he grew. When he walked they giggled about how different he looked. When his skin colors and patterns darkened into different shapes and shades from their own, they whispered noisily that he was certainly a different color. They began to call him splotchy, because his marking did not match theirs.

And even though Edmont grew to
be much larger than the other hatchlings, and would
have been able to d o m a n y m o r e t h I n g s than they could, he began to feel so badly about walking differently
and looking different, that he refused to even
t r y to do the things that he would have been l e a r n i n g.
He just looked sadly into the water and
wished that he looked more like the others.
As he sat wishing,
watching his reflection in the pond, he
began to grow very q u i e t, and he wished
he c o u l d make friends.

He wished he had spots and marks the same as Corey, and he began to wish he wasn't even himself. He just wanted to be someone else.

When Edmont grew large enough, and thought he could find food by himself he decided to run away. “If I run away from the other hatchlings,” he thought, “I won't have to look at them, and then I will not feel so badly about myself.”

So one day he just started walking and did not look back. He walked all through one day and one night and through the next day. Now, as large as he was, he may have walked many miles that way,
and he was a very long way from his nest.

Edmont met a young Lambeosaurus named Lambeo.
Edmont could see that Lambeo was a type of duckbill, but
his hatched shaped crest and spine ran backward from the crest.
When Edmont saw Lambeo's crest and the frill that grew out of it, he began to t h I n k Lambeo must be the most interesting looking,
b e a u t I f u l duck he had ever seen.
Lambeo didn't look just like Corey's family, and looked very different from Edmont, but Edmont decided he must be very special and wanted to
get to know him and l e a r n from him.

Lambeo told him:
"I am Lambeo. I am the shortest giant of my species."
Then he said,
"I am Lambeo, the tallest midget of my species.
Another time he said, “I am Lambeo with a crest and a frill I love.”


Edmont was confused at first, but when he
finally began to u n d e r s t a n d that he himself could
b e v e r y s p e c I a l at many things,
and f e e l good about himself,
the way he looked, his color and size
were not the important parts of him.

He began to u n d e r s t a n d that his
own special markings and
unique way of walking would
help him b e c o m e the b e s t of what he was—whatever he would decide that should be.

So Edmont set out to
d i s c o v e r what things he could be very good at.
He began to l e a r n and u n d e r s t a n d
“I am unique and special in many ways.”
“I will l e a r n to do these things in my best way. “
They were other things he had to l e a r n too,
about taking care of himself and
protecting himself,
and about meeting other dinosaurs and making friends,
but he began to r e a l i z e that he
did not have to try to impress
other dinosaurs,
or to show off in order to have friends.
He learned as Lambeo had,
“I am special in my own way”
“I can do many things well,
and one thing I can do well is to get along with others.”
He had began to l e a r n that he
didn't have to do everything perfectly,
or look just like the others and he
had choices about which things he thought
were important to him
to practice and l e a r n to do well.
He knew as long as he was
l e a r n I n g and changing in good ways,
he was having a good life.

When he wanted to get attention, or meet new dinosaurs, he had to
l e a r n what to do from Lamdea.

He began to l e a r n that rather than yelling or hitting, he could
t o u c h a person on the shoulder,
s a y their name,
a s k for what he wanted,
a c c e p t “no” for an answer,
or a s k for reasons.


He now knew that he could
r e m e m b e r the g o o d f e e l n g s he got
playing with friends and treating them in s a f e gentle ways.

As he grew larger still, he returned to the home where he had been raised and he used his new skills with those other dinosaurs.
He was able to
t e a c h many things he was l e a r n I n g as he
began to make new friends and play among them.



Some of the family of dinosaurs said,
“He looks prettier now.
He seems more friendly and makes
me f e e l g o o d to be around him.

Edmont's color had not changed.
He had grown even larger, and he
walked in the same way, but he could
f e e l c o n f i d e n t and
f e e l g o o d about himself.
He now knew how to get what he wanted
and needed in appropriate ways.
Now when he looked at his reflection in that very same pond,
He could s e e a beautiful duck billed dinosaur.
He could e n j o y his special color and his special splotches.
He carried his head and tail in a new way
that showed he had learned to c a r e a b o u t
himself and others,
and the other dinosaurs really did
e n j o y his company and they would
l o o k for him to play with,
just to be with him.