Episode 430: Whiskers or eyelashes on dinosaurs? Plus a dinosaur connection challenge with Pokemon

News:

• 256 new titanosaur eggs were discovered in India source
• A new type of egg in Japan probably came from a small troodontid theropod source

Sponsors:

We’re very close to reaching our goal of 250 patrons! When we hit the goal we’ll be releasing bonus ad-free episodes every month to patrons at our Triceratops tier and up. Join our patreon to help us reach our goal! You can join the Triceratops tier for $9.99/mo (or $8.99/mo if you pay for a year) at patreon.com/iknowdino

Tell us what you think about our show in our 2023 Year End Survey! We want our show to be as enjoyable as possible, and your input will help us improve. Head to bit.ly/ikdsurvey23 to help shape the future of I Know Dino!

The dinosaur of the day: Lophostropheus

• Coelophysoid theropod that lived between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, around 205 to 196 million years ago, in what is now Normandy, France (Moon-Airel Formation)
• Looked kind of like Dilophosaurus, but smaller
• Walked on two legs, had long arms, a long tail, and a couple crests on the top of its head
• Small to medium in size
• Estimated it could grow up to 9.8 ft (3 m) long and weigh up to 220 lb (100 kg)
• Though some scientists, such as Molina-Pérez and Larramendi, have estimated up to 17 ft (5.2 m) long and weighing 300 lb (136 kg)
• May have survived the Triassic-Jurassic extinction
• Type species is Lophostropheus airelensis
• Genus name means “crest vertebrae”
• Genus name refers to the low crests on the top and bottom (dorsal and ventral) neck vertebrae
• Species name refers to the Airel Quarry where the fossils were found
• Originally thought to be Halticosaurus, and then Liliensternus, before being named Lophostropheus
• Halticosaurus is a dubious theropod that lived in the Triassic, and was named in 1908
• Liliensternus was a basal neotheropod that lived in the Triassic in what is now Germany, and named in 1984
• Fossils first described in 1966 by Claude Larsonneur and Albert-Félix de Lapparent, as Halticosaurus
• Described a partial skeleton that was found in 1959, which included a tooth, a number of vertebrae, including five neck vertebrae, and parts of the pelvis
• From the 1966 paper by Claude Larsonneur and Albert F. De Lapparent: “One tooth, thirty-five vertebrae, several bone fragments and coprolites were discovered in the blackish and sandy-clayey beds of the Airel quarry”
• Tooth found was 2 cm, slightly recurved and flattened, with serrated edges
• Authors said “this trenchant tooth “at the same time is a knife, sabre and saw” according to Buckland’s remark”
• Recognized they could not classify the dinosaur based on just one tooth, but said the tooth pointed them to the dinosaur being a theropod and the vertebrae made it seem like it was Halticosaurus
• Seven of the vertebrae are from the neck, “remarkable for their elongation”, which the authors said “is not so frequent in dinosaurs”
• Also found three coprolites with fish teeth and scales, which may have belonged to the Halticosaurus/Lophostropheus
• They also said that in the quarry, “mollusc shells form true marbles in places”
• In 1993 Gilles Cuny and Peter Galton reclassified the specimen as Liliensternus airelensis
• But later, more differences were found, such as having an extra pair of cavities in the neck vertebrae, and splitting the dinosaur to a new genus as Lophostropheus made sense
• In 2000, Oliver Rauhut and Axel Hungerbühler published a review of European Triassic theropods, and suggested Liliensternus airelensis “might represent a distinct genus, but more material is needed to confirm this”
• Found major differences in the neck vertebrae, such as the extra cavities, but said whether or not that’s enough to merit a new genus depended on finding more fossils for comparison
• In 2004 Matthew Carrano and S. D. Sampson published a review of coelophysoids from the Lower Jurassic of Europe, and found Liliensternus/Lophostropheus to be a coelophysoid
• Named Lophostropheus in 2007 by Martin Ezcurra and Gilles Cuny
• Ezcurra and Cuny in 2007 found that Liliensternus airelensis had enough unique features to be renamed Lophostropheus, including “constant length of caudal vertebrae along the tail”, and found that features Lophostropheus had in common with Liliensternus liliensterni were “more widely distributed among coelophysoids and basal dinosaurs than it was thought” (meaning those features weren’t enough to keep them grouped together)
• Also found Lophostropheus to be more closely related to Coelophysidae than Liliensternus liliensterni
• Not too many other animals found in the Airel quarry, but found plants and fish

Fun Fact:

Some dinosaurs may have had whiskers.

Thank you Patrons!

Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at patreon.com/iknowdino