Re: Tsin(g)taosaurus

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-01-29 22:07:22 EST, sj@io.com (Steve Jackson) writes:

>Writing up this beastie for a game project . . . I've seen the name with
>and without a G - what is correct, please?

The name is _Tsintaosaurus_. No "g" (as in Lessem 1992).

>And who or what is Tsin(g)tao?

Tsintao is a town in Shandong Province, China, near the type locality.

>I want to get this right, rather than perpetuate error . . .

Most admirable!

>(Oh, and while we're at it: Don Lessem, in KINGS OF CREATION, seems to
>express doubt that the "unicorn" reconstruction of the head crest is
>correct. Anything new on this?)

Yes. French paleontologist Taquet and others doubted the vertical position of
the crest because it seemed to be about the same shape as the nasal of a
typical flat-headed duckbill. If you lay it horizontally along the muzzle, it
does fit between the frontals and the premaxillae fairly well--and in the
type specimen, the nasal (at least, the front of the nasal) is missing.
Buffetaut and other French paleontologists, however, have located a second
specimen of _Tsintaosaurus_ in which the bone is vertical, thereby casting
considerable doubt on the Taquet hypothesis. It would be quite unlikely to
find the same bone similarly misplaced in two different specimens (although
stranger things have happened).