ZoomDinosaurs.com Dinosaur and Paleontology Dictionary

TSINTAOSAURUS (pronounced sin-tau-SAWR-us) Tsintaosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) of which little is known. Tsintaosaurus was roughly 33 ft (10 m) long. It may have had a thin, hollow bony crest on its head (jutting forwards, or maybe backwards) but some paleontologists think that this crest may in fact be an artifact of the fossilization process (Tsintaosaurus may be a lambeosaurine, a crested hadrodaur). Tsintaosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous period. Tsintaosaurus was named by Young Chung Chien in 1958. Tsintaosaurus means "Tsintao lizard", named for the city of Tsingtao (Ch'ing-tao or Qingdao, which means "green island") near where the fossil was found in the Wangshi Formation, Shandong Province, China. Tsintaosaurus may be the same as Tanius (which was named earlier and therefore retains its name), which was a crestless Hadrosaurid from China. Tanius was named by Carl Wiman in 1929.

TSUNAMI (pronounced sue-NAHM-ee) A tsunami is a huge wave, caused by undersea earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or, more rarely, by asteroid or meteoroid impact (as in the case of the K-T extinction).

TULLY MONSTER The Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium) was a soft-bodied sea animal with a long proboscis that ended in a "jaw" with eight small, sharp teeth. Tullimonstrum was an active swimmer that was a carnivore (meat-eater). It lived roughly 280 to 340 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. Fossils of this unusual organism were first found by Francis Tully in Illinois, USA, in 1958. It was named and described scientifically by Dr. Eugene Richardson.

TUOJIANGOSAURUS (pronounced Too-oh-gee-ANG-oh-SAWR-us) A stegosaurid, a quadrupedal, plant-eating dinosaur about 23 feet (7 m) long with double rows of plates along its back, a toothless beak, a long, low-hanging head, spoon-shaped teeth, 2 shoulder spikes, and a 4-spiked tail. It was from the late Jurassic period, about 163-150 million years ago in China. It was named in 1977 by Shiwu Zhou, Dong, Zhang, and Li.

TURTLE Turtles are anapsids, having no extra holes in the sides of their heads. Turtles evolved during the late Triassic period, roughly 220 million years ago, about the same time the dinosaurs and mammals evolved. Proganochelys is the oldest known turtle. Other early turtles include Proterocheris, Saurischiocomes, Chelytherium, Dermoschelys, Notoemys, Platychelys, Trionyx, Baena, Chisternon, and Meiolania.

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