Episode 321 is all about Pantydraco, a sauropodomorph that isn’t pronounced how you would expect, it’s Welsh.

We also interview Tara Cooper & Terry O’Neill. Tara is an artist and professor of fine arts at the University of Waterloo. Terry worked in the CBC documentary unit for 15 years, nowadays he makes independent docs. They collaborated on the brand new documentary Follow the Bones about Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai and the people behind the discovery.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• A new ornithopod, Riabininohadros, was described from Crimea source
• Sinankylosaurus, the “Chinese Ankylosaurus” was formally described source
• A new theropod dinosaur from Mukawa, Hokkaido, Japan will likely be named soon source
• In Fujian, China paleontologists have found over 240 fossilized dinosaur footprints likely including sauropods, theropods, & ornithopods source
• According to Scientific American since 1824, 10,851 dinosaur fossils (about 1,000 species) have been documented source
• The National Museum of Niger is planning on expanding and refurbishing next year source
• The designs for the Mary Anning statue in Lyme Regis have been released source
• Myles Garrett celebrated his birthday with a Spinosaurus cake source

The dinosaur of the day: Pantydraco

• Basal sauropodomorph that lived in the Late Triassic in what is now Wales (Vale of Glamorgan)
• Descriptions based on multiple individuals
• Holotype skull was pretty crushed and disarticulated
• Gracile
• Had a long neck
• Had a long tail, that was broad at the hip
• Tail tapered at the end
• Estimated to be 9 to 10 ft (3 m) long as an adult
• Estimated to weigh about 110 lb (50 kg)
• Others estimate it to be 4.9 ft (1.5 m) long
• For the smaller estimates, the thinking is the estimate is based on the individual not being a juvenile but being an island dwarf (partly based on a study of the fauna and finding the habitat may not have been able to support much larger herbivores)
• However, Peter Galton and Kenneth Kermack said the specimen had signs of being a juvenile, like skull bones not fully fused, a slender form, a head too large for its neck, and a short, high snout, and a low tooth count
• Nasal bones are fused, which is unusual for juveniles, and may be a distinct characteristic of Pantydraco
• Skeletal reconstructions can show it being either more bipedal or more quadrupedal, depending on whether the back part of the body is enlarged or not to match the size of the front part of the body (Kenneth Kermack had it more bipedal in 1984 and Adam Yates had it more quadrupedal in 2003)
• Forelimbs were shorter than hindlimbs
• Could grasp with its forelimbs
• Had a pointed head
• Had a large thumb claw, may have been for defense or to gather food
• Probably omnivorous
• Had a strong jaw
• Had triangular teeth
• Type and only species is Pantydraco caducus
• Partial juvenile skeleton found
• Specimen was found in 1952 by Kenneth Kermack and Pamela Robinson, in an underground limestone cave fissure
• Adam Yates originally named it Thecodontosaurus caducus in 2003, based on specimen BMNH P 24 (skull, partial jawbone, vertebrae, incomplete right pelvic bone, partial forelimbs)
• Peter Galton, Adam Yates, and Kenneth Kermack named it Pantydraco in 2007
• Genus name after the Pant-y-ffynnon quarry where it was found. Pantyffynnon is a small village, and the quarry is at the base of a mountain between two rivers
• Quarry name means “dry valley”
• Full genus name means “dry valley dragon”
• Species name means “fallen” and refers to the assumption that the holotype fell into a fissure (the quarry) and died there
• Lots of flash thunderstorms, which often drowned smaller animals and washed them into the limestone cracks. Think that’s what happened with the juvenile Pantydraco, which got swept away (adults would have been too big to go into the cracks)
• 2007 paper wrote in the etymology: “a fabulous lizard-like animal”
• Apparently Adam Yates got flack for the name Pantydraco. He had wanted to call it Cambrambulus (“Welsh wanderer”) but co-author Peter Galton had already suggested Pantydraco
• One of the most basal sauropodomorphs known from Europe, along with Thecodontosaurus antiquus
• Thecodontosaurus was the fourth dinosaur named, and the first sauropodomorph named
• Thecodontosaurus was described in 1836 and 1840
• In 2020, Antonio Ballell, Emily Rayfield, and Michael Benton wrote that Pantydraco may not be a valid taxon and that it might be a juvenile Thecodontosaurus antiquus instead. They compared Thecodontosaurus material found at a site in Tytherington, England, and found anatomical similarities, like the teeth with deep, straight roots, and other similarities in the skull. They also found characteristics that made Pantydraco distinct didn’t apply, like the medial tuberosity of the humerus (rounded prominence where the muscle attaches). They said this had been worn away on most Thecodontosaurus and Pantydraco specimens, including their Tytherington specimen.
• They also found that phylogenetically Thecodontosaurus and Pantydraco were consistently considered to be sister taxon or Pantydraco was found to be in a clade that included Thecodontosaurus and more derived sauropodomorphs. They said this could mean Pantydraco and Thecodontosaurus were actually in the same taxon or the only reason Pantydraco was more basal was because of some characters assigned to it because it was a juvenile
• More than 800 animals found in the same rocks as Pantydraco. Most of them were small reptiles (only 2% were Pantydraco)
• Pantydraco was probably one of the biggest animals in the area, along with the crocodylomorph Terrestrisuchus
• Lived on small islands that had limestone caves, surrounded by a tropical sea (wetland)
• Potentially had frequent forest fires
• Can see Pantydraco fossils at Natural History Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire, UK (currently closed)

Fun Fact: The Chinese translation of T-rex is 暴龙 (bàolóng) which roughly translates to “savage dragon.”