Shantungosaurus
Name:
Shantungosaurus
(Shantung lizard).
Phonetic: Shan-tung-o-sore-us.
Named By: Hu - 1973.
Synonyms: Zhuchengosaurus maximus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae, Saurolophinae.
Species: S. giganteus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Largest individuals approaching up to 15 to
16.5
meters long.
Known locations: China - Shandong Peninsula -
Wangshi Formation.
Time period: Late Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of many
individuals allowing for composite reconstructions.
When
remains of Shantungosaurus were first found they
were found in a bone
bed of at least five individual dinosaurs. Though none of these were
of a complete skeleton, composites of incorporating the bones of more
than one individual have been assembled with the largest producing a
hadrosaurid
dinosaur just over sixteen and a half meters long,
possibly weighing up to sixteen tonnes. To put this in perspective,
this currently makes Shantungosaurus the largest
known hadrosaurid
dinosaur, even larger than other well-known large hadrosaurs such as
Edmontosaurus
and Magnapaulia.
Edmontosaurus in
particular is
actually considered to be a very close relative of Shantungosaurus
with
the two genera sharing many features.
Shantungosaurus
is also considered to be the largest ornithischian (bird hipped)
dinosaur, and when compared to the saurischian (lizard hipped)
dinosaurs, probably the largest non-sauropod dinosaur to boot.
Other rivals to this claim such as Spinosaurus
which has an upper
length estimate slightly longer than Shantungosaurus,
though possibly
not as heavy. Usually weight is the determining factor when
deciding which animal is the bigger.
Despite
the immense size, Shantungosaurus seems to have
lived just like other
hadrosaurs. There is no distinct crest on top of the skull which
confirms the identification of Shantungosaurus as a
saurolophine
hadrosaurid. Shantungosaurus does however possess
a large nasal
opening, raising the consideration that an enlarged growth of soft
tissue may have been present in living examples. At the back of the
mouth one and a half thousand small teeth processed plant matter so it
was mashed to a pulp for efficient digesting.
The
obvious question concerning Shantungosaurus is why
did it grow so big?
The short answer is we just don’t know, though certain groups of
animals often display a trend where successive genera get larger and
larger, especially when driven by survival factors such as a changing
climate or the appearance of larger and more dangerous predators.
What we can say is that Shantungosaurus is not the
only unusually
large dinosaur to be found in late Cretaceous Asia with another example
being Gigantoraptor,
a particularly large oviraptorid dinosaur.
Further reading
- [A new hadrosaur from the Cretaceous of Chucheng, Shantung],
C.-C. Hu - 1973.
- Zhuchengosaurus maximus from Shandong
Province, X. Zhao, D.
Li, G. Han, H. Hao, F. Liu, L. Li and X. Fang -
2007.
- Systematics, behavior and living environment of Shantungosaurus
giganteus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae), Y. Ji, X.
Wang,
Y. Liu & Q. Ji - 2011.
- Comparative osteology and phylogenetic relationship of Edmontosaurus
and Shantungosaurus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Upper
Cretaceous of North America and East Asia. - Acta Geologica
Sinica-English Edition. 88 (6): 1623–1652. - Hai Xing, Xijin Zhao,
Kebai Wang, Dunjing Li, Shuqing Chen, Jordan C. Mallon, Yanxia Zhang
& Xing Xu - 2014.
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |