Episode 452: Two new duckbills and a cabin made out of real dinosaur bones. Plus there’s a new megaraptorid coming soon and we answer a question about the status of Torosaurus vs Triceratops

News:

• A new hadrosauroid, Gonkoken nanoi, is the first duck-billed dinosaur from the subantarctic region source
• Paleontologists named a new ornithopod, Iani smithi source
• There’s a new “Freddy Krueger of dinosaurs” source
• Patron question: The status of some reported juvenile Torosaurus finds source

Sponsors:

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The dinosaur of the day: Diamantinasaurus

• Titanosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Australia (Winton Formation)
• Looked like a compact, sturdy sauropod
• Had a long tail and walked on all fours
• Did not have a particularly long neck
• Medium sized, estimated to be 52 ft (16 m) long and weigh up to 28 tons
• One subadult was about 49 ft (15 m) long and weighed 20 to 22 tonnes
• Had a broad pelvis
• Had a wide stance
• Had stout arms
• Had thumb claws (unusual for titanosaurs)
• Had a rounded lower jaw
• Stripped off food, didn’t chew it
• Could eat at least 3 ft (1 m) above the ground, probably 20 to 23 ft (6 to 7 m) above the ground, not clear what exactly it ate
• Best known sauropod from the Cretaceous in Australia
• Type species is Diamantinasaurus maltidae
• Described in 2009 by Scott Hocknull and others
• Genus name means “Diamantina lizard”
• Refers to where it was found (near the Diamantina River)
• Species name comes from the Australian song, “Waltzing Matilda” (written by Banjo Peterson in Winton in 1895). According the paper that named Diamantinasaurus, it’s “one of Australia’s National songs” and Winton is “Matilda Country”
• Holotype found near Australovenator
• Holotype included part of the shoulder, arms, hands, ribs, part of the pelvis, and right leg
• Fossils found at the “Matilda Site” at Elderslie Sheep Station near Winton, in Queensland, Australia
• Holotype is nicknamed “Matilda”
• When discovered, Diamantinasaurus was the first sauropod named from Australia in more than 75 years
• More specimens found later, including vertebrae, part of the feet, skulls, and more
• Other specimens found nicknamed: Alex, Oliver, and Ann
• Talked about “Ann”, the newly discovered, nearly complete skull in episode 441 (fourth Diamantinasaurus specimen found, and second skull found, and the most complete sauropod skull found in Australia)
• Ann showed that Diamantinasaurus is closely related to Sarmientosaurus, which lived around the same time and at a similar paleolatitude
• Dinosaurs may have moved between Australia and South America via a land connection through Antarctica
• Oliver is a juvenile specimen
• Oliver was the smallest sauropod specimen found in Australia (weighed almost 5 tons)
• Oliver helps show titanosaurs did not grow isometrically (equally). Its long bones grew faster than other parts of its body
• Oliver had narrower limb bones, and helped show that the limb bones Diamantinasaurus grew thicker as the dinosaur grew up (probably to help support its weight)
• Being in the Antarctic Circle, may have had winters with long periods of darkness
• Lived alongside crocodylomorphs, fish, turtles, mollusks, pterosaurs, insects
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include sauropods like Wintonotitan, Savannasaurus, and Austrosaurus, and ankylosaurians and hypsilophodonts
• Can see fossils at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton, Queensland (can see holotype)
• Diamantinasaurus is on an Australian specialty coin from 2022, and on stamps

Fun Fact:

There is a cabin built out of dinosaur bones (and it’s not the only building that’s been made of dinosaur bones)

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