Edmontosaurus means "Edmonton Lizard" named for the Edmonton Rock Formation in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and lived in the cretaceous period, about 73 to 65 million years ago. Fossils have been found in western North America, including Montana, USA, and Alberta, Canada. Edmontosaurus was a plant eater and was 42 feet long, 10 feet tall at the hips and weighed 3 to 3.5 tons. Edmontosaurus was a slow moving dinosaur with few defenses, but may have had keen senses (eyesight, hearing, and smell) to help it avoid predators in its swampy habitat.
 

This Rotunda is between some of the exhibits and was dedicated when the Natural History Museum opened its doors in 1913, and is one of the Museum's most elegant spaces. Lined with beautiful Italian marble columns, mosaic tiles on the floor and crowned by a glorious stained glass dome and coffered ceiling, the room is also the home of the very first piece of public art funded by Los Angeles County, a Beaux-Arts statue entitled "Three Muses," which represents the disciplines of Art, History and Science.
 

The Rotunda’s dome is 58 feet in height, with a skylight 20 feet across and the room is 75 feet in diameter. The Rotunda also has three wings and is the perfect space for wedding ceremonies or any kind of private or corporate reception.
 

Here you see a cheetah in full stride along with a skeleton poised in the same position. It's amazing how small the bones are after seeing it up close which would explain why this animal is capable of running up to 70 mph and are the fastest land animal. In the wild their most important prey are medium sized hoofed animals such as gazelles, impalas and waterbucks.
 

This is a Mastodon which roamed North American. The name Mastodon means 'nipple tooth' which refers to the shape of it's molar teeth. Mastodons and Mammoths are often confused which is understandable since both were giant, prehistoric elephants. Mastodons, like Mammoths were covered with fur which had thick coats of shaggy hair to protect them from the intense cold. Mastodons were primarily browsers, nibbling on shrubs and the low lying branches of trees. Mastodons weighed over five tons, were famous for their long curved dangerous tusks and went extinct during the last Ice Age.
 

The head gear on these horned dinosaurs are enormous (I shot this at eye level). Horned dinosaurs in particular seemed to have evolved every possible combination of their wild looking skulls and frills (boney collars) and each species had its own head gear. It would be a bad day if you were on the wrong side of one of these guys.