Episode 387: The day that dinosaurs went extinct. Riley Black joins us to share her take on what it would have been like to live through the Chicxulub impact event.
You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2
News:
- There was a new response to the paper estimating there were probably billions of T. rex source
- In Missouri, the House recently voted to update the name of their state dinosaur from Hypsibema to Parrosaurus source
- A group of Toronto Raptors fans dressed up in inflatable dinosaur costumes to celebrate the team making the playoffs source
- The Smithsonian is making exclusive products with Jurassic World: Dominion source
- Past Eons Productions is recreating the BBC Walking With Dinosaurs documentary using Jurassic World Evolution 2 mods source
Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by MEL Science. They offer science subscription boxes teaching STEM, chemistry, and physics for science enthusiasts of all ages. Use promo code “ikd” for 60% off your 1st month of any subscription. Act quickly, the promo code is limited and will only be active for 1 month. Get your box at https://melscience.com/sBGY/ with promo code ikd.
Interview:
Riley Black, a science writer and communicator, whose work has appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Scientific American. She has written a number of books, including “The Last Days of Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World“, which came out this week. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @Laelaps.
The dinosaur of the day: Macrogryphosaurus
- Elasmarian ornithopod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Patagonia, Argentina (Sierra Barrosa Formation)
- Looked kind of like a hadrosaur, but with a smaller head and less bulky body
- Had a longish head, long tail, and walked on two legs
- Largest known elasmarian
- Estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) long, though may have gotten larger
- Had a long neck and coelurosaur-like tail
- Had 10 long vertebrae in the neck
- Had intercostal plates (bony structures in the ribs) along the side of the torso
- Had a fused, birdlike sternum
- Had a short, stiff torso
- Type species is Macrogryphosaurus gondwanicus
- Genus name means “big enigmatic lizard”
- Species name refers to Gondwana
- Described in 2007 by Jorge Calvo and others
- Fossils found in 1999 during field work by the National University of Comahue
- A young boy, Rafael Moyano, first found the fossils
- Found a nearly complete, articulated adult skeleton (includes most of the neck, the thorax, the pelvis, and most of the tail)
- Has been described as beautifully preserved
- Appears in Chased by Dinosaurs, a sequel to Walking with Dinosaurs
- Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include the titanosaurs, Kaijutitan and Mendozasaurus, and the megaraptorid Murusraptor
Fun Fact:
Both herbivorous and carnivorous theropods evolved stronger jaws over time.
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
Share your thoughts