Daily Dose of Prehistory Revival 22: Shantungosaurus giganteus

Shantungosaurus giganteus, meaning "Gigantic Shandong Lizard", was a species of saurlophine hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now the Wangshi Group of the Shandong Peninsula in China during the Late Cretaceous about 70 to 65 million years ago. It was the largest known hadrosaur and one of the largest ornithischians, measuring up to 54 feet long and weighing up to 18 tons. This also made it the largest bipedal animal ever to live, beating out several theropod dinosaurs by weight alone. It had a toothless beak with 4 sets of dental batteries (basically a fuckton of teeth that were constantly falling out and coming in, numbering 1500 in total) as well as a large hole in its 5.3ft long skull nearits nostrils which was likely covered in a large flap of skin. This skin flap could be inflated to make sounds for communication or intimidation. Like most other large animals of the time, Shantungosaurus went extinct during the KT Extinction Event at the end of the Cretaceous.