Episode 466: Dinosaur movies: classics, consulting, and a new premiere. Steve Brusatte presented on consulting for Jurassic World: Dominion, Film critic and historian Charles Solomon talked about influential dinosaur animations, Why Dinosaurs? is premiering this weekend, plus news from SVP 2023

News:

• Steve Brusatte shared his experience being the paleontology consultant for Jurassic World: Dominion source
• Internationally respected critic and historian of animation Charles Solomon talked about animation and paleontology in film including “From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning” source
• A panel of scientists discussed colonialism in vertebrae paleontology source
• The characteristic dinosaur death pose is only regularly seen in non-avian theropods source
• A new Triceratops specimen seems to have “rhizoetching” trace fossils from plant roots and/or fungus source
• A femur from an apatosaurine (possibly Apatosaurus) seems to have a new pathology called osteochondritis dissecans source
• Why Dinosaurs? is premiering in Hollywood source

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you by Mini Museum. They curate billions of years of science and history into collections that can fit on your shelf! Explore dozens of unique specimens (including dinosaur fossils) at minimuseum.com and use code IKNOWDINO for 10% off

The dinosaur of the day: Camposaurus

• Coelophysid dinosaur that lived in the Late Triassic in what is now Arizona, U.S. (Placerias Quarry, Bluewater Creek Formation)
• Not to be confused with Camptosaurus, a much (probably) larger dinosaur that had a beak and ate plants
• Small and carnivorous
• Not enough fossils found to estimate its size
• Fossils found include lower leg bones and other fragments
• Looked similar to Coelophysis
• Based on Coelophysis, would have walked on two legs, had shorter arms, a long tail, a long neck, and elongated head, and would have been slender
• May have gone after small lizards or small, young, dinosaurs
• Type species is Camposaurus arizonensis
• Named in 1998 by Adrian Hunt and others
• Genus name means “Camp’s lizard”
• Named after Charles Lewis Camp, who excavated the fossils
• Species name refers to Arizona, where it was found
• Holotype found in 1934
• Many fossils were included as paratypes when it was named (including more parts of the legs and ankles, part of a sacrum and vertebrae), but not everyone agrees with these fossils being Camposaurus because they were from a large bonebed and although they were found near the holotype, hard to know they’re the same dinosaur
• Named because it had tarsals fused to the tibia and fibula and details in the ankle bone (astragalus)
• For a while thought to be a junior synonym of Coelophysis
• Covered Coelophysis in episode 204
• Alex Downs in 2000 found it to be a junior synonym of Coelophysis because it had lots of similarities to the Coelophysis specimens found on Ghost Ranch in New Mexico
• Wrote that it “appears to fall easily within the range of variation”
• In 2007 Sterling Nesbitt and others also found Camposaurus to be a synonym of Coelophysis, based on its ankle bone being straight and looking the same as that of Coelophysis bauri
• Some paleontologists considered it a nomen dubium because not enough fossils found
• Martin Ezcurra and Steve Brusatte re-examined the holotype of Camposaurus and in 2011 found it had two distinct features, which meant it was valid
• Features in the shinbone (tibia) and ankle bone (astragalus)
• Has a distinct ridge on the tibia, where it forms a joint with the fibula, and does not have a knob on the ankle
• Also found Camposaurus to be closely related to Megapnosaurus, because they have similarities in the leg and ankle
• Covered Megapnosaurus in episode 456
• In 2017, Ezcurra found Camposaurus to be in a clade with Megapnosaurus, Segisaurus, and (later) Lucianovenator
• Lived in the early to middle Norian (Norian is from ~227 to 208.5 mya)
• Thought to be the oldest known neotheropod, or at least one of the oldest
• Neotheropods include coelophysoids and more advanced theropods, and are the only theropods that survived the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Group includes dinosaurs such as Cryolophosaurus (from Antarctica), Dilophosaurus, Sinosaurus, and more
• Being the oldest or one of the oldest neotheropods means there are long ghost lineages
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include the phytosaur Rutiodon (phytosaurs were large, mostly semiaquatic reptiles, Rutiodon had a long snout full of sharp teeth), aetosaurs such as Desmatosuchus and Stagonolepis (aetosaurs were heavily armored reptiles, and Desmatosuchus had shoulder spikes) and the metoposaurid Anaschisma (large amphibian that had large jaws and ambushed prey)

Fun Fact:

Dinosaurs sometimes steal mammal hair & fur to improve their nests.

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