Episode 419: Tyrannosaurs broke teeth, dino arms, and 2 new dinosaurs. A new ornithopod from Antarctica and a new alvarezsaurid. Plus details from the Coelophysis bonebed in New Mexico, an update on the Utahraptor block, and more from SVP 2022

News:

• The Colbert Prize posters from SVP 2022: Tyrannosaur tooth wear, a new ornithopod, a new alvarezsaurid, and more source
• More talks from SVP 2022: Polar dinosaur tracks, a potential new tyrannosaur, more Shri fossils, turtles with theropods, and more source
• Also, the 9 ton Utahraptor block might have another raptor species in it, fossilized dinosaur skin chemistry, and more from SVP source

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This episode is brought to you by the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. They have amazing summer camps every year including field paleontology, paleoart, and virtual options. Find out more and sign up at https://bit.ly/camps23

The dinosaur of the day: Panphagia

• Sauropodomorph that lived in the Late Triassic in what is now San Juan Province, Argentina (Ischigualasto Formation)
• Looked like other early dinosaurs, with a long tail, somewhat long neck, long arms, and walked on two legs
• Fossils had similar features of the sauropodomorphs Saturnalia (covered in episode 369) and Eoraptor (covered in episode 60)
• Size and proportions were similar to Eoraptor, though Panphagia is slightly larger, with relatively shorter hindlimbs compared to Eoraptor
• Front of the skull between the eyes was narrow, like Eoraptor (and unlike Herrerasaurus)
• Lower jaw was proportionally more slender compared to Eoraptor
• Had a proportionally short nasal
• Holotype is about 4.3 ft (1.3 m) long
• Holotype includes parts of the skull, vertebrae, parts of the shoulder, parts of the pelvis, and hindlimb bones
• Bones were mostly disarticulated (except for 15 of the tail vertebrae), but they were all near each other and there were no duplicate bones, so they likely came from the same individual
• Limb bones and vertebrae had hollow shafts, like Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus
• Fossils found in 2006 by Ricardo Martinez
• Described by Ricardo Martínez and Oscar Alcober in 2009
• Type species is Panphagia protos
• Genus name means “all to eat” in Greek and refers to it probably being an omnivore, “which appears to be transitional between carnivory and herbivory”
• Species name means “the first” and refers to its basal position in sauropodomorphs
• Lived around 231 million years ago
• The most basal known sauropodomorph
• Had teeth that may mean it was an omnivore
• Teeth in the back of the jaw were shorter than the teeth in the front, and were leaf-shaped, and the teeth in the front were better for eating meat
• Discovery helps show how sauropods evolved
• Lived in the early Carnian (Carnian lasted from about 237 to 227 million years ago)
• Helps show an earlier origin of sauropodomorphs during the Middle Triassic
• Based on animals found in the Ischigualasto Formation from the Carnian, which had both saurischians and ornithischians, and theropods and sauropodomorphs from the saurischian side, Martinez and Alcober suggested Saurischia split into theropods and sauropodomorphs in a few million years
• Based on Panphagia and its relatives, saurischian dinosaurs are thought to have started as small animals that could run
• Had features that made it clear it was a basal sauropodomorph, even though it is close to the common ancestor of theropods and sauropods. Features are in the teeth, jaws, and other features in vertebrae and the ankle bone, as well as the leg bone lengths
• Had a relatively long skull, which “represents the primitive condition when compared with the reduced skull length in other sauropodomorphs”
• Martinez, Haro, and Apaldetti described the partial braincase of Panphagia in 2012
• Holotype was a subadult, based on the lack of fusion in the braincase fossils
• Braincase had features that further linked Panphagia to sauropodomorphs and to it being one of the most basal sauropodomorphs, such as a proportionately long frontal skull bone
• Lived alongside at least five other basal dinosaurs, including Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus

Fun Fact:

We don’t know why vertebrates have bones made out of Calcium phosphate while invertebrates use Calcium carbonate.

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