Episode 407: Another carnivore for Stromer’s Riddle. A new abelisaurid from the Bahariya Oasis adds yet another carnivorous group to the formation. Plus a new sauropod from Columbia and a ton of other dinosaur discoveries.

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News:

• New sauropod Perijasaurus lapaz was discovered in Colombia source
• A new abelisaurid from the Bahariya Oasis adds yet another carnivorous group to the formation source
• A sauropod was found in a backyard in Portugal source
• Thomas Carr and a team found fossils of T. rex, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus on a 4-week expedition in the Badlands of Montana source
• A nearly complete juvenile hadrosaur with skin impressions was found in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada source
• The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences excavated three dinosaurs in Wyoming’s Morrison Formation source
• 100 million-year-old dinosaur footprints were found in a restaurant in Sichuan province, China source
• 113 million year old dinosaur tracks were seen in Texas due to a severe drought source
• In May, Hector the Deinonychus was auctioned off for $12.4 million source
• In July, a Gorgosaurus skeleton was auctioned off for about $6 million source
• The University of New Mexico opened a Natural History Science Center source
• Portland, Oregon had a cartoon dinosaur art exhibit this summer source
• Dinosaur Museum Altmühltal in Denkendorf, Germany had Little Al on display source
• The Royal Tyrrell Museum launched the exhibit “Perspectives on the Art of Glen McIntosh” source
• Hong Kong Science Museum opened “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: The Big Eight — Dinosaur Revelation” exhibit source
• New public science project Cretaceous Creatures lets 8th graders do real science with real fossils source

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The dinosaur of the day: Magnosaurus

• Megalosaurid megalosauroid theropod that lived in the Middle Jurassic in what is now England (Inferior Oolite Group)
• Looked like other theropods, walked on two legs, had a long snout with sharp teeth, long tail
• Considered to be small bodied
• Gregory Paul estimated to be about 13.1 ft (4 m) long and weigh 386 lb (175 kg)
• Benson estimated the hip to be just over 3.3 ft (1 m) tall
• Benson said Magnosaurus was probably similar in body mass to Piatnitzkysaurus (estimated to be around 990 lb or 450 kg) but that this couldn’t be confirmed because the weight-bearing limb bones were too poorly preserved
• Only fragments found
• In the past, had been included with Megalosaurus
• Friedrich von Huene in 1923 named Megalosaurus nethercombensis based on a partial skeleton (partial lower jaws, vertebrae, part of the pubis and leg bones, from possibly a juvenile)
• Broken adult teeth and emerging teeth found in the lower jaws
• Huene named Megalosaurus lydekkeri based on a tooth in 1926 (Richard Lydekker had described it in 1888)
• Then in 1932 he renamed Megalosaurus nethercombensis to Magnosaurus nethercombensis, and referred Megalosaurus lydekkeri to it (as Magnosaurus lydekkeri)
• He also named Magnosaurus woodwardi based on a tibia, which he also accidentally named Sarcosaurus andrewsi in the same 1932 paper
• In 1956 the name Sarcosaurus andrewsi stuck (Huene referred all material to Sarcosaurus)
• Magnosaurus woodwardi had lots of differences in how the bones looked compared to Magnosaurus nethercombensis, and the two species lived at least 20 million years apart
• Type and only species is Magnosaurus nethercombensis
• Megalosaurus lydekkeri now considered to be a nomen dubium (doubtful name)
• Genus name means “large lizard”
• Until the 1990s, thought to basically be a Megalosaurus species (wastebasket taxon, where lots of fossils attributed to Megalosaurus that were later found to be different types of dinosaurs)
• Some differences in the bones though, like in the tibiae (lower leg bone)
• In 2003 Oliver Rauhut suggested Magnosaurus and Eustreptospondylus to be the same because the lower jaws were similar and he renamed Eustreptospondylus oxoniensis as Magnosaurus oxoniensis but not everyone agrees
• In 2010 Roger Benson found Magnosaurus to be valid, based on foramina (hole) in the lower jaw (dentary)
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include Megalosaurus and Duriavenator (another theropod thought for a while to be Megalosaurus)

Fun Fact:

Many “herbivorous” species today have been seen eating other animals. Some lesser known examples include parrots, cows, and sheep.

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