Tsintaosaurus

Tsintaosaurus was a large duck-billed dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous epoch in Shandong Province, eastern China. It grew to lengths of eight to ten metres and weighed approximately three tonnes. For decades, Tsintaosaurus was famously restored with a bizarre, forward-pointing spike projecting from the top of its skull like a unicorn horn. Modern re-evaluations demonstrated that this spike was merely the broken rear support of a much larger, hollow, petal-shaped cranial crest that projected upward and backward. Inside the crest, looping nasal passages would have helped produce deep acoustic calls for communicating with herd members. It moved comfortably on all four legs or on its hind legs alone, feeding on shrubs, leaves, and conifer branches.

Long depicted with a unicorn-like spike, modern restudy shows its hollow nasal crest formed a broad forward-curved petal.

Where and when

Tsintaosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 73 to 70 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from China, in the Jingangkou Formation.

The numbers

Length 9 m (estimates run from 8 to 10 m). Mass about 3 t. Hip height about 3 m. That is 5.3 human-lengths, or 0.8 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, first ma, last ma, hip height.

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