Name:
Shantungosaurus (Greek for "Shantung lizard"); pronounced shan-TUNG-oh-SORE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of Asia
Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 50 feet long and 15 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Large size; long, flat beak
About Shantungosaurus:
Not only is Shantungosaurus the biggest of all the duck-billed dinosaurs; at 15 or so tons, it’s the biggest of all the ornithischian dinosaurs (saurischians, the other main classification of dinosaurs, include sauropods like Seismosaurus and Brachiosaurus, which weighed three or four times as much).
The only complete skeleton of Shantungosaurus to date was assembled from the remains of five individuals, whose bones were found mixed together in the same fossil bed in China. This has been taken as evidence that these giant herbivores roamed the Asian woodlands in herds, to avoid being preyed on by tyrannosaurs.
