Olorotitan (Swan Titan) is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived in the Udurchukan Formation, Amur Province, Far East Russia, 72 - 66 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.
Named for its swan-like neck, longer than those of other hadrosaurs (it has 18 neck vertebrae as opposed to the supposed maximum of 15 for hadrosaurs), Olorotitan is distinguished by its hatchet-shaped hollow crest, unique compared to the crests of its North American relatives. Otherwise, much like other hadrosaurs, Olorotitan possessed a battery of teeth to mash up food, while its crest, formed out of the bones containing the nasal passages, was also used as a striking display feature and as a means to amplify the animal's vocalizations. It was a large animal, 3.5 meters (11 feet) tall, 8 meters (26 feet) long, and weighed 2.6 – 3.4 metric tons (2.9 – 3.7 short tons).[1][2]
Prehistoric Planet depicts Olorotitan with a criss-cross pattern on its dark, countershaded skin, while the crests come in a lighter color. As the show states, the babies undergo a quick growth stage. It is unknown if this growth slows down after the first year, of if the animal grows rapidly and only lives a short lifespan.
Olorotitan is featured in the third segment of Ice Worlds, where a herd of females are shown venturing to a volcanic area to lay their eggs in the warm soil and raise the juveniles the moment they hatch. During the summer, these fertile lands also provide them with nutritious horsetails and freshwater, though these same conditions prove ideal for spawning mosquitoes. The presence of these bloodsucking insects forcing the thin-skinned hadrosaurs to leave with some difficulty. Even so, the juveniles who grew there and survived to leave are considered lucky to have been raised, nourished, and prepared in the rich, warm feeding grounds of Russia. Some footage from this segment is also used for the Prehistoric Planet: Uncovered segment "Were Dinosaurs Good Parents?", which showed the various ways in which dinosaurs reared or at least ensured success for their babies, with one of these strategies being the usage of volcanic areas to incubate eggs, a tactic also used by Isisaurus in the first segment of Badlands.
Paleoecology[]
Paleoenvironment[]
Olorotitans mowing down a field of horsetails
“ The babies have arrived at a time of brief but rich summer plenty. Fueled by a sun that, for weeks, never sets, horsetails here grow fast, and in sufficient numbers to feed the whole herd. These plants contain more nutrients than the lushest grass. ”
Discovered in the Kundur locality within the Arhara County (estimated to date back to the early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period),[3]Olorotitan, along with other Russian hadrosaurs like Charonosaurus and the more basal Amurosaurus, is one of the last lambeosaurines. While the lambeosaurines of North America disappeared just before the late Maastrichtian, the subfamily as a whole survived elsewhere, in places like Spain (e.g. Pararhabdodon) and the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco (e.g. Ajnabia), indicating that, while factors in North America drove the lambeosaurines there to extinction, their existence was still supported by conditions and ecosystems in other parts of the world.
Olorotitans traversing the deadly fields of the Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt
“ They're heading for one of the world's largest volcanic regions. It's a dangerous and hostile place. But the Olorotitans return to it year after year, because the volcanoes keep the ground particularly well-heated. ”
Olorotitan came from the Udurchukan Formation in the Amur Region of Far East Russia, an area believed to only be slightly older than the Lance and Hell Creek Formations in North America. While the exact environment of Olorotitan is obscure, it may have probably been a lush, fertile land with forests, rivers, and streams, helped by the fact that the Earth's overall climate is warmer than that of present times. Adjacent to this area is the Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt (OCVB), which stretches from Khabarovsk Krai (just a short distance northeast of the Udurchukan Formation) up to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the easternmost end of Russia. Along with the Deccan Traps of India, the Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt is one of the most active volcanic areas of the Cretaceous Period. As was proven to be the case for the dinosaurs of South America and India, the Olorotitans are depicted relying on the geothermal heat generated by this dangerous region to incubate their eggs.[DN 1]
Olorotitans in the wetlands of Russia
“ Right now, these volcanic wetlands are the most productive places on the planet, both above and below the surface of the water. But that very productivity brings problems for the hadrosaurs. Warm, shallow pools are an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes. ”
As nourishing as the environment is, there are always negative aspects to worry about. While the volcanic activity is the most obvious risk, the warm conditions are also ideal spawning grounds for insects that may be annoying, disease-carrying, and, in dire circumstances, even capable of being lethal.
Prehistoric Planet films the third segment of Ice Worlds in Iceland, specifically in the Kerlingarfjöll mountain range and various volcanic landscapes in the Reykjanes Peninsula, the latter of which is also eventually used for the Lameta Formation, the setting of the first and fifth segments of Badlands.
Parental Habits, Juvenile Lifestyle, and Growth[]
Olorotitans setting up their nests in volcanic fields
“ So this is where they nest. The warm, volcanic sand serves as an incubator for their eggs. And a few weeks after the arrival of the herd, the eggs hatch. ”
On Prehistoric Planet depicts Olorotitan as being willing to risk a yearly journey through hazardous volcanic environments to take advantage of the area's geothermal heating, warm enough to properly incubate their eggs (which they lay and bury in elevated mounds), fertile enough to grow horsetails more nutritious than the best of grass.
Olorotitan hatchlings with food given by their mother
“ Hadrosaurs look after their young with care. They bring mouthfuls of plants for them to eat. Each nest may contain over 20 youngsters. ”
Regarding their parental instincts, the mothers care for their young (with as many as 20 hatchlings per nest) by bringing them food the moment they hatch. Even so, these motherly instincts have limits. When they feel that their juveniles would not survive (for example, due to incessant mosquito attacks), rather than waste effort trying to care for them, the mothers cut their losses and abandon the hatchlings doomed to die. This indicates that, while they care for their young like K-strategist animals, the Olorotitans seem to be more like r-strategists, given how they lay many offspring every year, with only one out of ten of them expected to survive. In a nest that can hold as many as 20 hatchlings, this means that only two may reach adulthood, perhaps more or less depending on other factors and circumstances.
A juvenile Olorotitan reunites with its mother after being left for dead to mosquitoes
“ And in the long, summer days, the hadrosaur babies grow quickly. They can reach half their adult size in their first year. ”
The juveniles that do survive reach half their adult size in a single year, for animals that rely on the r-selection strategy become sexually mature in a shorter amount of time; in the case of hadrosaurs, they took 2 - 3 years to reach maturity before their growth slowed down. One study in 2008 brings up Hypacrosaurus stebingeri specimen MOR 549, which reached sexual maturity (during which the animal becomes fertile and ready to mate) in 2 - 3 years, attained 95% skeletal maturity (the extent to which its body can grow) in 10 - 12 years, and died at 13 years of age, with all these suggesting that the quick growth of hadrosaurs was an adaptation against large predatory dinosaurs, which tended to grow at a rate 2 - 4 times slower. In that study, it is said that Albertosaurus took around 23 years, and Tyrannosaurus rex around 36 years (though a new study in 2020 suggests that T. rex reached skeletal maturity in 16 - 22 years).[4][5] This is also consistent with Majungasaurus of the Maevarano Formation in Madagascar, as it is said to take 20 years to grow.[6]
Gallery[]
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