Shantungosaurus and Saichania

[Kovu]

Quick question. Would Shantungosaurus and Saichania have run into each other? From the research I've done, Shantungosaurus lived from the mid-late Campanian on the Shandong peninsula.



Saichania meanwhile lived in the Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian with a geographic range of Barun Goyot and the Nemegt in Omnogovi Province, Mongolia.



So, my thinking is, they seem to have overlapped temporally at the beginning of Saichania's time and the end of Shangtungosaurus' time. But is the geographical distance too far?

Just curious. If someone with more knowledge in this area than I do could weigh in, much appreciated!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I am guessing that the dinosaurs from the western US were not unique in their migrations...and if that is the case, all odds are off....and anything could have happened.

[Sim]

Some palaeontologists have found Tianzhenosaurus and Shanxia to be junior synonyms of Saichania.  An easy to understand explanation for why Victoria Arbour found this can be read at the end of her blog post here: http://pseudoplocephalus.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/know-your-ankylosaurs-mongolian-odds.html  I personally think that those two are most likely synonyms of Saichania.  Those two are from Shanxi Province, which is in between the Shandong peninsula and Omnogovi Province..

[Kovu]

Thanks guys!

Sim, I just spent a bit looking at Victoria Arbour's blog - thank you so much for the link! Definitely bookmarking for future reference. I agree with you that Tianzhenosaurus and Shanxia are likely synonymous with Saichania and I like what she said about Saichania possibly having a widespread geographic range. She mentioned we need a better understanding of the dinosaur biostratigraphy of Mongolia, do you know if there's any papers on that topic by any chance? The only ones I've been able to find focus more on China.

[Sim]

You're welcome Kovu!   I'm afraid I don't know if there's any papers on that topic.

[irimali]

I don't know if this helps much, but a quick look at wikipedia's pages for the Wangshi Group (Shantungosaurus) and the Barun Goyot Formation (Saichania) don't seem to show any overlapping genera.  I don't see any hadrosaurs at all from Barun Goyot.  I wish there was more info on the environments, but I'm guessing based on the different faunas that each formation represents a different environment.  Maybe there was a place between where some animals mingled at the far edges of their ranges?