Abstract:

  This paper gives a brief historical review of the study of the duckbilled dinosaur Shantungosaurus giganteus Hu, 1973, from the Xingezhuang Formation of the early Late Cretaceous age at Longgujian valley of Kugou village, Lübiao town, Zhucheng city, Shandong province, China, and has a discussion on the systematical relationship between Shantungosaurus giganteus Hu, 1973 and Zhuchengosaurus gigantus Zhao et al., 2007. On the basis of the burial characteristics, skeletal structures and ontogenic characteristics, Zhuchengosaurus gigantus Zhao et al., 2007 is considered to be synonymic with Shantungosaurus giganteus Hu, 1973. According to the naming priority in palaeontology, Zhuchengosaurus gigantus Zhao et al., 2007 is regarded to be invalid herein. This paper also deals with the life behaviour and environment of Shantungosaurus giganteus, which is thought to be a terraneous, gregarious, maigre (or planteating) duckbilled dinosaur, living in hills and intervales with warm weather, plentiful rainwater and flourishing vegetation. In addition, the study of the fossilbearing strata shows the sedimentary characteristics of branching streams or fluvial fans facies, rather than lacustrine facies. The terribly dense occurrence of dinosaur fossils is regarded as the result of exceptional mass death caused by emergent or catastrophic events, rather than the global K/T event.

Key words: Shantungosaurus giganteus, Late Cretaceous, classification, life behaviour, environment, Shangdong province