Episode 207 is all about Montanoceratops, a primitive ceratopsian with an unusually deep tail thanks to its vertebral spines.

We also interview Ashley & Lee Hall, both from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Ashley is the Adult Programs Coordinator and Lee is a Preparator and Lab Manager. But more importantly, like us, their wedding heavily featured dinosaurs. Follow Ashley on twitter & Instagram @LadyNaturalist and Lee on on twitter & Instagram @Paleeoguy

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• More details from this years SVP conference (referenced abstracts can be found in the PDF from the meeting) source
  • T. rex could turn more quickly than similar dinosaurs
  • New histology on the tyrannosaurs Jane & Petey show that Nanotyrannus is probably a juvenile T. rex
  • Simulated jaw mechanics showed the bite force and bone penetration of several tyrannosaurs
  • The juvenile T. rex Found N.E. Montana includes partial hands, feet, vertebrae, ribs, a partial skull, and teeth
  • Therizinosaurs have an unusual combination of basal arm musculature and more avian style leg musculature
  • Dinosaurs’ unique single ovary appears to have evolved after Oviraptor but before Troodontidae
  • We don’t know if large bodied dromaeosaurs (velociraptor and larger) had tail fans
  • The new “Mtuka titanosaur” was found in Africa
  • An analysis of fossil fragments in Mygatt-Moore showed about half of the bones had marks on them
  • Maiasaura humeri bone microstructure changed as they aged, supporting a shift from bipedal to quadrupedal
  • Pachycephalosaurus has theropod-like teeth in the front and other similarities to Dracorex
  • An analysis of the pachycephalosaur Sphaerotholus showed that all 3 species should be considered valid
  • Early dinosaurs had thin semi rigid eggs, but in the early to mid Jurassic their eggs got thicker—possibly as a solution to dehydration and predation
  • By studying dozens of crocodilian, turtle, and bird nests, researchers found that the arrangement is preserved well as it is buried
  • Professional fossil preparator tips include: wear gloves, use tools only after getting training, and test other methods in advance to avoid unwanted destruction
  • High quality photogrammetry and 3D printing can be achieved using cheaper equipment
  • It is important to standardize and clean up the large amounts of historical fossil data so that it is easy to search and understand

The dinosaur of the day: Montanoceratops

• Name means “Montana horned face”
• Small ceratopsian that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Montana and Alberta
• Quadrupedal, up to 9.8 ft (3 m) long
• Primitive ceratopsian, had claws instead of hooves and had teeth in the upper jaw, instead of a toothless beak
• Originally thought to have a nasal horn but turns out it was a cheek horn
• Herbivore, probably used its beak to bite off leaves or needles
• Had tall spines on the bones of its tail, though the spines were covered when it was alive
• Tail was deep, and was flexible, so may have been used to signal to other Montanoceratops
• First found in the St. Mary River Formation, and fossils collected in 1916 by Barnum Brown and Peter Kaisen
• Material Brown found included an incomplete skull, several ribs, some vertebrae, pelvic girdle, femora, left tibia and fibula, some toes
• Fossils are in the American Museum of Natural History collection
• Reconstruction was mounted in 1935
• Named in 1942 by Brown and Erich Maren Schlaikjer as a new species of Leptoceratops (Leptoceratops cerorhynchos)
• Charles Sternberg studied more Leptoceratops in 1951 and found that the material Brown described was its own genus, Montanoceratops
• Now is the type species of Montanoceratops
• David Weishampel found more fossils in 1986
• Description of these fossils published in 1998 by Brenda Chinnery and Weishamepl
• Brown collected more material in 1910 from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Alberta, Canada. Peter Makovicky described it in 2001 (well-preserved braincase) and assigned it to Montanoceratops
• Montanoceratops was a leptoceratopsid, that lived in the same habitats as larger ceratopsids and were pretty diverse
• St. Mary River Formation had mountains on one side, and had small ponds, streams, and floodplains
• Other dinosaurs that lived in the St. Mary Formation included ceratopsians Anchiceratops and Pachyrhinosaurus, nodosaur Edmontonia, hadrosaur Edmontosaurus, theropods such as Hagryphus, Sauronotholestes, Troodon, tyrannosaurid Albertosaurus
• Also lived among fish, mosasaurs, reptiles, mammals, mollusks, and snails
• Horseshoe Canyon Formation had a valley with channels, swamps, river deltas, floodplains, shorelines, and wetlands. Also had changing sea levels, with marine habitats, lagoons, tidal flats. It was subtropical, and wet and warm
• Other dinosaurs that lived in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation included Anodontosaurus, Edmontonia, Euoplocephalus, maniraptorans such as Atrociraptor, Epichirostenotes, Richardoestesia, troodontids like Paronychodon, theropods like Albertonykus, ornithomimids like Dromiceiomimus and Ornithomimus, pachycephalosaurids like Stegoceras, ornithopods like Parkosaurus, hadrosaurids like Edmontosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, and Saurolophus, ceratopsians such as Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Eotriceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, tyrannosauroids like Dryptosaurus, tyrannosaurids like Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus
• Mostly had hadrosaurs
• Other animals included sharks, rays, sturgeons, and other fish, plesiosaurs, early marsupials, invertebrates (marine and terrestrial)
• Cool climate, didn’t have many reptiles such as crocodilians and turtles (though possible that turtle diversity was declining)

Fun Fact:

Alamosaurus sanjuanensis is currently the only known titanosaur from North America.

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs

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