Episode 241 is all about Tsintaosaurus, a hadrosaur with a distinctive “unicorn-like” head crest.

We also interview David Evans, a prolific researcher, associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

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With David Evans and Zuul, at the Royal Ontario Museum

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

A new dinosaur, Vespersaurus paranaensis, with one large middle toe and two small slashing claws was discovered source

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia has a new Dinosaurs Around the World exhibit source

In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are animatronic dinosaurs at West Lothian shopping center source

The Peoria, Illinois Riverfront Museum is getting the AMNH T. rex exhibit in 2021 source

Runescape is getting an update called The Land Out of Time with dinosaurs source

Apex Legends 2 is getting “dangerous dinosaurs” source

Jurassic World Alive has an update, where you can feed and play with your dinosaurs in new “sanctuaries” source

The dinosaur of the day: Tsintaosaurus

Hadrosaurid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now China (Jingangkou Formation)

About 27 ft (8.3 m) long and weighed 2.5 tonnes

Herbivore, had a dental battery and a “duck bill”

Mostly quadrupedal, but could rear up on two legs when on the lookout and to run away from predators, or to eat

May have lived in herds

Fossils found in 1950

Described in 1958 by C. C. Young (Yang Zhongjian)

Type species is Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus

Name means “qingdao lizard” (old transliteration, which is transferring one letter of the alphabet of one language to the other, of Tsingtao)

Qingdao is a city

Species name means “with a nose spine”

Holotype consists of a partial skeleton with a skull (paratype found, with a skull roof)

Often talked about as a “unicorn-like” dinosaur

Young thought Tsintaosaurus had a unicorn-like crest on its skull (with a fork at the end), about 15.7 in (40 cm) long and nearly vertical from the back of the head, and that the crest was hollow

Other partial skeletongs and disarticulated elements were found in the same area. Some Yang referred to Tsintaosaurus, others were named Tanius chingkankouensis or Tanius laiyangensis

Rozhdestvensky and Taquet considered Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus to be a junior synonym of Tanius sinensis

Not everyone agreed

In 1990, David Weishampel and Jack Horner said the crest was not hollow and may have actually been a broken nasal bone from the top of the snout, and if Tsintaosaurus didn’t have a distinct crest, it may have been a synonym of Tanius (which looked similar but didn’t have a crest). They thought Tsintaosaurus was a chimera

Then in 1993 Eric Buffetaut and in 1995 Haiyan Tong-Buffetaut found that the crest was correct (upright) and described a second specimen with a vertical crest, which helped show the crest was real, and Tsintaosaurus was distinct because of it

In 2013 Albert Prieto-Márquez and Jonathan Wagner reconstructed Tsintaosaurus and found the crest was the rear part of a larger head crest that started at the tip of the snout, and included fused nasal bones that made a hollow tubular structure. The crest would have been mostly vertical but pointed a little to the back of the head (may have initially looked vertical because of the way it fossilized)

Crest was hollow and domed

They found that the tubular structure was not an air passage and suggested it helped make the crest less heavy

Nasal passage passes through the crest

Nasal passages may have allowed Tsintaosaurus to make low-frequency noises

Main part of the crest hasn’t been yet found but would have been made of premaxillary bones

Also found that Tsintaosaurus had several distinct traits, including a round, thick rim of is upper beak

Classified as a lambeosaurine

Can see Tsintaosaurus in Jurassic World: Evolution

Fun Fact: Living dinosaurs (birds) are the only amniotes with colored eggs. They probably evolved in Archosauria, possibly within Eumaniraptora.