Episode 342 is all about Sauroniops, a large carcharodontosaurid with a dome on its head.

We also interview Dean Lomax, an award winning paleontologist and currently Visiting Scientist at The University of Manchester, UK. He is also a scientific consultant for many shows and author of the new book, Locked In Time, which looks at animal behavior through 50 extraordinary fossils. Follow him on twitter or Instagram @Dean_R_Lomax.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• “Cooper” is now officially Australotitan cooperensis and is the largest dinosaur ever described from Australia source
• Paleontologists in Yunnan Province, China, found a 70% complete skeleton, probably Lufengosaurus source
• Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA has a animatronic dinosaur exhibit source
• Mayborn Museum in Waco, Texas has a temporary exhibit: “The World’s Largest Dinosaurs” Created by AMNH source

The dinosaur of the day: Sauroniops

• Carcharodontosaurid theropod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Morocco (Kem Kem Beds)
• Looks a lot like Carcharodontosaurus, with elongated skull and sharp teeth, but had dome on its head
• Carnivorous and bipedal
• Had a thick, vaulted skull roof
• Had a bump on its head
• Holotype is MPM 2594, and is a nearly complete left frontal bone (part of the skull, just above the eye socket); described as thick and broad
• Fossil was about 7.5 in (19 cm) long
• Someone bought the fossil from a Moroccan fossil dealer in Errachidia Province, Morocco, and then donated it to the Museo Paleontologico di Montevarchi in Italy (fossil collected by locals, and exact location was unknown)
• Described and named in 2012 by Andrea Cau, Marco Dalla Vecchia, and Matteo Fabbri
• When first describing the fossil in 2012, the authors said: “Although the combination of features present in is unique and should support the institution of a new species, pending more complete specimens we feel it would be inappropriate to erect a new taxon.”
• Later in the year, they re-analyzed the fossil and found it was unique enough to be named
• Decided to re-analyze because of several papers that showed carcharodontosaurids had distinct frontal bones, and could be used to tell them apart
• In the 2012 paper, they wrote: “Due to the numerous autapomorphies in their skeletons, carcharodontosaurids can be identified even from isolated bones”
• Type specimens for Eocarcharia, Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, and Veterupristisaurus as unique enough to be named from isolated bones
• Type species is Sauroniops pachytholus
• Genus name means “Sauron eye”
• Named after the character Sauron from Lord of the Rings, since the only known fossil is from above the eye socket
• Species name means “thick dome”
• Originally thought to be a derived member of Carcharodontosauridae
• The later 2012 paper found it to be a basal carcharodontosaurid and related to Eocarcharia
• Lived at the same time and place as Carcharodontosaurus
• Compared to other theropods found in the Kem Kem Beds, the frontal bone was only known in Carcharodontosaurus
• Had a small dome that protruded from the middle of the fossil
• Bump on the head could be for display or head butting (but hard to know for sure based on the one fossil)
• Nasofrontal suture extended along 40% of the frontal length (nasal bone was contacting the frontal bone for over ~40% of the frontal length)
• Hard to estimate the body length, but based on the length, width, and thickness of the skull bone, the specimen was found to be similar in size to the frontal bones of really big carcharodontosaurid specimens with well preserved skulls. Based on that, estimated to be 33-39 ft (10 to 12 m) long
• Specimen thought to be an adult, based on the size of the frontal being about the same or larger than the size of frontals in adult Carcharodontosaurus
• A 2020 study by Nizar Ibrahim and others found Sauroniops to be a junior synonym of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus
• Looked at the neotype skull of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus and found the frontal of Sauroniops to be 60% the size of the frontal of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, and said “This size disparity casts in a new light what amount to minor differences between these specimens.”
• They found the unique features of Sauroniops to not be different enough from Carcharodontosaurus saharicus
• Andrea Cau did not agree with the synonymization

Fun Fact: There are 30 dinosaurs that end in -otitan or -atitan. All but 3 are titanosauriforms: Anatotitan, the “giant duck”, Olorotitan, the “giant swan”, and Tyrannotitan, the titanosaur eater.

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