[D] Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus [sG] [T]
Describer
Young, 1958
Time
Cretaceous Late Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Hadrosauridae Lambeosaurinae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Wangshi Series, Shandong, China
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus (Young, 1958) >> Tanius chingkankouensis (Young, 1958) >> Tanius laiyangensis (Zheng, 1976)
Some researcher recently had interpreted the unusual hollow, tall cranial spine as an artifact of preservation rather than a real feature of the living animal, and have suggested that Tsintaosaurus is a junior synonym of the flat-headed hadrosaurine Tanius, the type specimen supposedly being a chimaera that mixed remains of Tanius with the skeleton of a lambeosaurine. However, E. Buffetaut (1993) found evidence that such a hollow cranial spine exists in another specimen, confirming the reality of the feature, and indicating that Tsintaosaurus is a taxonomically definable lambeosaur.
Young, 1958
Time
Cretaceous Late Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Hadrosauridae Lambeosaurinae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Wangshi Series, Shandong, China
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus (Young, 1958) >> Tanius chingkankouensis (Young, 1958) >> Tanius laiyangensis (Zheng, 1976)
Some researcher recently had interpreted the unusual hollow, tall cranial spine as an artifact of preservation rather than a real feature of the living animal, and have suggested that Tsintaosaurus is a junior synonym of the flat-headed hadrosaurine Tanius, the type specimen supposedly being a chimaera that mixed remains of Tanius with the skeleton of a lambeosaurine. However, E. Buffetaut (1993) found evidence that such a hollow cranial spine exists in another specimen, confirming the reality of the feature, and indicating that Tsintaosaurus is a taxonomically definable lambeosaur.