In the Dinosaur Gallery on the second floor of ROM, in the corner of where the Barosaurus head is pointing to, there is a well-preserved Parksosaurus skeleton. This was a small herbivorous dinosaur. It walked on two legs and lived during the late Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago.
Although relatively small for a dinosaur, the Parksosaurus skeleton here is special because it is the only remaining skeleton in the world of this very rare bipedal plant-eating dinosaur.
Parksosaurus is named for paleontologist William Arthur Parks, the ROM's founding director. It was Parks who described this very special holotype. The holotype is a very important thing in paleontology. It is the first unearthed specimen of a prehistoric species named after him. Scientists use the type as a standard. They then compare other fossils they thought were from the same species to this standard.
Parksosaurus was an agile dinosaur with a horny beak, a long neck, and a long, pointed tail that stretched straight out behind it.
What's special about this display is that, with the exception of a few toes, the bones are real. They have survived for millions of years, and it certainly seems like it, because the surfaces of these bones are covered with cracks and fragments.
Parksosaurus weighed about 45 kilograms when alive. Its forelimbs are small and agile, and its hind legs are long and powerful. Some paleontologists believe its long toes were used for walking on dirt or clay near rivers. Its forearms were short and strong and may have even been used to dig holes, a behavior that has been documented in at least some of its close relatives.