Open Paleo

Tsintaosaurus

Young, 1958 CHING-DOW-SAWR-us

Named for the city of Qingdao (formerly romanized as Tsintao), China, combined with Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard'.

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Tsintaosaurus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China. It was about 8.3 meters (27 ft) long and weighed 2.5 tonnes (2.8 short tons). The type species is Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus, first described by Chinese paleontologist C. C. Young in 1958. As a hadrosaur, Tsintaosaurus had the characteristic 'duck bill' snout and a battery of powerful teeth which it used to chew vegetation. It usually walked on all fours, but could rear up on its hind legs to scout for predators and flee when it spotted one. Like other hadrosaurs, Tsintaosaurus probably lived and traveled in herds.

Species

Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus Young, 1958

Type species

From Latin 'spina' meaning 'spine' and Ancient Greek 'rhis' meaning 'nose', referring to the distinctive spine-like crest projecting from the snout.

Holotype
IVPP V725 , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Horizon
Hongtuya Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Chingkankou, Shandong, China The provincial lithostratigraphy (Zhang and Liu, 1996) lists Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus from the Tianqiaotun area of Laiyang in the Hongtuya Formation and places the hadrosaur sites at Jingangkou in it; its Jingangkou Formation is the lake beds above. Prieto-Márquez and Wagner (2013) and Hu and colleagues (2001) give the horizon as the Jingangkou Formation in a wider sense.

Notable specimens

  • IVPP V829

    Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology complementary

    An isolated premaxilla whose 2013 reidentification as a Tsintaosaurus element by Prieto-Márquez and Wagner reshaped the crest reconstruction, showing the unicorn-like bone was the rear of a larger cranial crest that began at the tip of the snout.

    Prieto-Márquez & Wagner (2013)

References

  1. Prieto-Márquez, A.; Wagner, J. R. (2013). 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. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082268 prieto-márquez2013b
  2. Young, C. C. (1958). The dinosaurian remains of Laiyang, Shantung. Palaeontologia Sinica, New Series C, Whole Number 142(16): 1-138. young1958a
  3. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    paul2024a
  4. Zhang, Z. Q.; Liu, M. W. (eds.) (1996). 山东省岩石地层 [Stratigraphy (Lithostratigraphic) of Shandong Province]. 全国地层多重划分对比研究 [Multiple Classification and Correlation of the Stratigraphy of China] 37. China University of Geosciences Press, Wuhan.

    Compiled by the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of Shandong Province; the book names Zhang Zengqi and Liu Mingwei as its compilers (p. 7).

    zhang1996a
  5. Hu, C. Z.; Cheng, Z. W.; Pang, Q. Q.; Fang, X. S. (2001). Shantungosaurus giganteus. 1-116. Geological Publishing House, Beijing.

    Cited from the reference list of Zhang and colleagues (2019).

    hu2001a