Shantungosaurus (lat.) Is the hadrosaur genus of the subfamily Hadrosaurinae or Saurolophinae , found in the late Cretaceous geological group Wangshi in Shandong province in China [1] . The Shantungosaurus stratigraphic interval ranges from the upper part of the Xingezhuang formation to the middle of the Hongtuya formation and dates from the middle to the end of the Campanian tier [2] . Shantungosaurus is still the largest hadrosaroid in the world: the largest length of its femur is about 1.7 m, and the largest length of its humerus is about 0.97 m.
| † Shantungosaurus |
|---|
Reconstruction |
|
| {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{| 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1 }} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 1}} | 4}} : | Animals |
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Infraclass : | Archosauromorphs |
| No rank : | Archosauriformes |
| Infrastructure : | † Ornithopods |
| Parvotryad : | † Iguanodonts |
| Superfamily : | † Hadrosavroids |
| Subfamily : | † Hadrosaurins |
|
|
Shantungosaurus Hu, 1973 |
|
| Shantungosaurus giganteus Hu, 1973 |
|
|
Shantungosaurus (blue) versus other giant ornithopods
A typical and only species is Shantungosaurus giganteus [3] . The generic name means “the lizard from Shandong”, and the species name is translated from Latin as “giant”.
Shantungosaurus is one of the largest representatives of poultry-dinosaurs: the type specimen of its skull is 1.63 meters long [1] , and the composite skeleton mounted at the Geological Institute of China in Beijing is 14.7 meters long [4] , while as another established skeleton, originally attributed to Zhuchengosaurus maximus , has a length of 16.6 meters [5] . The mass of the largest individuals could reach 16 tons [6] . Like other hadrosaurs, the beak of the animal was toothless, but the jaws carried about 1,500 tiny chewing teeth. The large opening near the nostrils may have been covered by a membrane that the pangolin inflated to make sounds.
First described in 1973, Shantungosaurus is known for its five incomplete skeletons. Based on new materials discovered in Shandong province, Chinese paleontologist Xu Xing and his colleagues showed that this dinosaur is very similar and shares many unique features with the Edmontosaurus , forming an Asian node with the Edmontosaurus clan - Shantungosaurus . In the same place, the remains of several individuals were found, including the bones of the skull , limbs, and spine, which in 2007 were attributed to the new species Zhuchengosaurus maximus [5] . However, further studies have shown that the supposedly distinctive features of Zhuchengosaurus were simply the result of different stages of growth [7] .
Recent rigorous analyzes of hadrosaurs have revealed a strong relationship between the sister groups of Edmontosaurus and Shantungosaurus . This dinosaur is the only valid genus from the Zhucheng region. Zhuchengosaurus and Huaxiaosaurus , two genera from the same region, are considered junior synonyms of the genus Shantungosaurus . All unambiguous morphological differences between these three taxa can be attributed to intraspecific variability ( ontogenetic and polymorphic variations) and post-sedimentary distortion [2] .
