Tsintaosaurus
Name:
Tsintaosaurus
(Qingdao lizard).
Phonetic: Sin-dow-sore-us.
Named By: C. C. Young - 1958.
Synonyms: Tanius laiyangensis.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae, Lambeosaurinae.
Species: T. spinorhinus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Up to 10 meters long.
Known locations: China, Shandong Province.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: At least two individuals,
possibly more.
One
of the more popular hadrosaurids,
Tsintaosaurus is actually not known
by many individuals. The popularity of Tsintaosaurus
is all down to
the forward pointing crest that adorns the top of the skull. There
was one widespread speculation that this crest was simply a product of
the fossilisation process, and that the bone that made up the crest
was actually from somewhere else, something that further led to
speculation that Tsintaosaurus was actually the
same genus of dinosaur
as the hadrosauroid Tanius.
A further specimen was eventually found
however, and again the forward pointing crest was evident and in
exactly the same place as the first. This revealed that the crest is
indeed that same as it was in the living animals and that while both
Tsintaosaurus and Tanius are
related, they are very
different genera. In 2013 a study (Prieto-M�rquez & Wagner)
resulted in a new reconstruction for the head crest for Tsintaosaurus.
Instead of a simples spike, the crest actually rose up from the nasal
bones and curved around above the back of the skull.
Like
with other hadrosaurs, would have probably been primarily
quadrupedal, though bipedal stances and locomotion were also easily
possibly. This flexibility meant that Tsintaosaurus
were also capable
of feeding at varying heights, increasing the amount of suitable
plants for feeding. Because the crest of Tsintaosaurus
is hollow it
is classed as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid, the group that contains
all hadrosaurids that have hollow crests (after the type genus of the
group Lambeosaurus,
the first hollow crested hadrosaurid
identified). As a reasonably large animal, and a plant eater,
Tsintaosaurus was likely prey for large predatory
dinosaurs of the
time such as tyrannosaurs
like Zhuchengtyrannus.
Further reading
- The dinosaurian remains of Laiyang, Shantung. - Palaeontologia
Sinica, New Series C. Whole Number. 42 (16): 1–138. - C. -C. Young -
1958.
- Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus Young and Tanius
sinensis Wiman: a
preliminary comparative study of two hadrosaurs (Dinosauria) from the
Upper Cretaceous of China. - 2. 317. C.R. Academy of Science Paris:
1255–1261. - E. Buffetaut & H. Tong - 1993.
- Pararhabdodon isonensis and Tsintaosaurus
spinorhinus: a new clade of
lambeosaurine hadrosaurids from Eurasia. - Cretaceous Research. - A.
Prieto-M�rquez & J. R. Wagner - 2009.
- The 'Unicorn' Dinosaur That Wasn't: A New Reconstruction of the Crest
of Tsintaosaurus and the Early Evolution of the
Lambeosaurine Crest and
Rostrum. - PLOS ONE. 8 (11): e82268. - A. Prieto-M�rquez & J.
R. Wagner - 2013.
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |