Olorotitan

## OlorotitanSwan Titan

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***“ The long necks of these dinosaurs are particularly elegant, and give them their name. Olorotitan, 'Giant Swan'. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
***Olorotitan*** (Swan Titan) is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived in the Udurchukan Formation, Amur Region, Far East Russia, 72 - 66 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.

## Description

### Size and Physique

***“ Their calls are amplified by their head crests, which are hollow. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
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).

### Prehistoric Planet's Depiction

*Main: *Olorotitan* on Prehistoric Planet*

Main: *Olorotitan* on Prehistoric Planet

***“ And in the long, summer days, the hadrosaur babies grow quickly. They can reach half their adult size in their first year. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
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 mosquitos. 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 Badlands.

## Habitat

*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.

***“ 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. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
*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. Prehistoric Planet depicts the *Olorotitans* as venturing to one of the largest volcanic regions in the world. It is likely that this is in fact the Kamchatka Peninsula, which is flanked by volcanic large belts and continues to be full of volcanic activity even today. The Kamchatka Peninsula is a long distance away from the Amur Region, however, if this is indeed meant to be the area the *Olorotitan* herd is shown navigating, then Prehistoric Planet is indicating that the volcanic activity of the Kamchatka Peninsula reached as far as the Amur Region in those times, or *Olorotitan* may have had a greater range than the fossils indicate, which would not be surprising given how hadrosaurs like *Edmontosaurus* were found in various areas far from each other, showing that hadrosaurs were capable of traveling long distances to suit their needs (in the case of *Olorotitan*, suitable nesting grounds).

***“ Right now, these volcanic wetlands are the most productive places on the planet, both above and below the surface of the water. But these very productivity brings problems for the hadrosaurs. Warm, shallow pools are an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
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.

## Behavior

***“ 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. 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. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
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.

***“ Hadrosaurs look after their young with care. They bring mouthfuls of plants for them to eat. Each nest may contain over 20 youngsters. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Ice Worlds*
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 to survive (in a nest that can hold as many as 20 hatchlings, this means that only two are expected to reach adulthood), and this is further supported by the fact that the juveniles that do survive are stated to reach half their adult size in a single year, for animals that rely on the r-selection strategy reach sexual maturity in a shorter amount of time.

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