Friday, December 04, 2015

The Giving of December. Tsintaosaurus

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 distantly related,‭ ‬they are very different genera.
       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.

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