Episode 126 is all about Australovenator, a megaraptoran theropod that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Australia.

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In this episode, we discuss:

In the news:

• 70 million year old eggs in Argentina were found in nests along with the remains of animals that ate them
• 4 new specimens of nearly complete Anchiornis huxleyi have been found in northeastern China including feather impressions
• A new video shows off the Moabosaurus utahensis now on display at BYU’s Museum of Paleontology in Provo, Utah
• New tridactyl prints in Argentina show the first evidence of Anomoepus, a likely ornithischian from the early Jurassic
• The likely body and jaw of the Corythosaurus excavatus holotype has been recovered and reunited with the original head from the holotype
• A new dinosaur ancestor called Teleocrater rhadinus was described along with its clade Aphanosauria
• The permanent exhibit Dinosaur Canyon has opened at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton, Queensland, Australia
• The University of South Carolina recently received a Mongolian oviraptor egg as a gift which will be on display soon
• Phoenix Zoo in Arizona will have a new exhibit this fall, called Dinosaurs in the Desert with 23 animatronic dinosaurs
• Augustynolophus got its own Twitter account (@Augustynolophus) to share details about its progress towards becoming California’s state dinosaur
• Smithsonain Mag posted an article about “Jingo” the papier-mache Stegosaurus mascot of anti-war activists prior to WWI
• In honor of National Park Week, all national parks, including Dinosaur National Monument, waived their fees this past weekend.
• Dilophosaurus is confirmed to be coming back in Jurassic World 2
• Colin Trevorrow tweeted a photo of seven dinosaur eggs in an incubator on Easter Sunday, but we don’t know what’s inside yet
• More videos of people in inflatable T. rex costumes, this week they were walking kids to school and playing golf
• KidsFunwares has a TriceraTACO, plastic Triceratops taco holder

Banjo the Australovenator, at Australian Age of Dinosaurs

The dinosaur of the day: Australovenator

• Megaraptoran theropod that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Australia (Queensland)
• Name means “southern hunter”
• Type species is Australovenator wintonensis
• Species name refers to the township of Winton (found near there)
• Described in 2009 by Scott Hocknull and team
• Only one known specimen, nicknamed “Banjo” after Banjo Paterson (Australian bush poet, journalist, and author)
• Bush poetry is a style that depicts the Australian bush (any sparsely-inhabited region in Australia, which Banjo revered as a source of national ideals)
• Banjo the Australovenator has found with Diamantinasaurus, a sauropod, at the Matilda site in Australia
• Other animals that lived at the same time in the same place include fish, turtles, crocodilians, insects, pterosaurs, ankylosaurians, hypsiolophodonts, sauropods (Diamantinasaurus and Wintonotitan). Plants include ferns, ginkgoes, gymnosperms and angiosperms
• Most complete skeleton found in Australia of a carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous
• Scott Hocknell called it the “cheetah of its time” (lightweight predator)
• Holotype includes left dentary, teeth, partial forelimbs and hindlimbs, partial right ilium, ribs, and gastralia
• About 6.6 ft (2 m) tall and 20 ft (6 m) long, weighing 1100-2200 lb (500-1000 kg)
• Had recurved, serrated teeth
• Lightweight and fast, could run down prey
• Some similarities with Fukuiraptor and Megaraptor
• Megaraptors were the dominant carnivorous dinosaurs in Australia in the mid-Cretaceous
• Can see Australovenator at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History

Fun fact:

About 550 million years ago (back in the Precambrian) the Bilaterian animals evolved. The common feature in this clade is that (almost) every animal has a distinct head, and are “bilaterally symmetric” meaning the right half of the animal is a mirror of the left half. This is different than the group of “radially symmetric” animals like jellyfish or adult starfish. Early Bilaterians included things like worms, but shortly after chordates and then vertebrates evolved to include fish, dinosaurs, and eventually humans. One place you see reference to bilaterians in paleontology is with the use of the word “postcranial”, literally after the head. Since (almost) all Bilaterians (which are mostly what fossilize) have heads, it’s an easy way to refer to the rest of the animal. One of the most useful features of dinosaurs being bilaterally symmetric is that you technically only need to find one half of the animal to know exactly what it looked like.”

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