Episode 49 is all about Muttaburrasaurus, a dinosaur from Australia.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Muttaburrasaurus
• Lived in Northeastern Australia in the early Cretaceous
• Name means Muttaburra lizard
• Named after Muttaburra, the site in Queensland, Australia where it was found
• Described in 1963 from a partial skeleton (skull, lower jaws, parts of the pelvis, part of the front and hind limbs) by Doug Langdon (bones collected by Alan Bartholomai and Edward Dahms); species named in 1981 by Bartholomai and Ralph Molnar in 1981, in honor of Doug Langdon
• Type species is Muttaburrasurus langdoni
• Skeleton found in Muttaburra was about 60% complete (most likely carcass floated out to sea from nearby land then sank and fossilized)
• Doug Langdon said he found the bones in a dry creek bed (he rode past them); He said ““I was mustering cattle and it was a dry season so there wasn’t much grass around and I happened to ride down to this waterhole to have a look for any cattle, and there was none there, so I rode on and I rode right past the bones”
• First fossils found on Douglas Langdon’s property in 1963, but took some time to collect, and his sheep and cattle accidentally wore some of the bones down
• Some of the bones on Doug Langdon’s property were taken by locals as souvenirs, though many returned when local authorities set up an amnesty for missing pieces
• Teeth found at other sites, one of them Lightning Ridge (opalised teeth), other skulls have also been since found
• Two known Muttaburrasaurus skulls, have slightly different crests (one, the “Dunluce skull”, second one found, has a shorter nasal crest and is slightly older, so crest may have changed over time)
• Skulls may also be different for males and females
• Or could be different species
• Found in Queensland and New South Wales (possible second species of Muttaburrasaurus, from Lightning Ridge)
• Also from Queensland is a second skull from Huhenden (older and more primitive), also isolated teeth and bones found southeast of Hughenden
• Opalised teeth and shoulder blad (possibly a different species) also found in Lightning Ridge in New South Wales
• Probably 2-3 species of Muttaburrasaurus, but only one has been formally described
• Fossils found in rocks that formed a marine environment, which means shallow seas covered a lot of eastern Australia in its time
• May have been a good swimmer, based on trackways, Australia’s Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. The 3,000 footprints were thought to be from dinosaurs stampeding to get away from a predator (with large, three-toed footprints), but now paleontologist Anthony Romilio said those prints were of a wading Muttaburrasaurus like herbivore and the other prints were from dinosaurs swimming in a prehistoric river
• 26 ft (8 m) long and weighed 3.1 short tons (2.8 metric tons)
• Debate over whether or not it was quadrupedal, but now most think it was bipedal. Originally scientists thought it had a thumb spike, but the foot was long and broad with four toes, so probably didn’t
• No thumb spikes
• Possibly bipedal and quadrupedal (had weight bearing hoofs)
• Could probably run (away from predators) but spent lots of time on all fours
• Looked like an iguanodon, with long stiff tail
• Had short forelimbs and a long, stiff tail
• Flat, wide skull
• Hollow chamber, enlarged nasal cavity
• Pointed snout with an enlarged, hollow nasal muzzle (possibly used for display or to make distinctive calls, but no fossilized nasal tissue has been found, so it’s unclear
• Powerful jaws and teeth that could shear, but the way teeth were arranged meant it could not chew
• Some used to think it ate meat, but now think it was shearing teeth
• In 1981, Molnar thought it was an omnivore, but changed in 1995 to herbivore (with shearing teeth)
• Had strong jaw muscles (rear part of the skull, where muscles attached is deeper compared to other ornithopods)
• Instead of continually replacing teeth, Muttaburrasaurus probably replaced all of its teeth at once (had a tooth row that formed a shearing surface instead of a grinding one)
• Had a beak
• Probably ate tough vegetation, like cycads
• Herbivore, ornithopod
• Ornithopod (“duck billed”) dinosaur, but had teeth more like Triceratops (shearing teeth)
• Originally Muttaburrasaurus was classified as an Iguanodontidae, then later as Camptosauridae, Dryosauridae or Hypsilophodontidae. But now it’s part of Rhabdodontidae
• Molnar assigned it to Iguanodontidae, but in 2010 Andrew McDonald released a study that placed it in Rhabdodontidae
• Lived in conifer forests near the edge of the inland Eromanga Sea
  In Lightning Ridge, there would have been extra long days in summer and extra short days in winter
• May have seen sauropods such as Diamantinasaurus, Wintonotitan and Austrosaurus; also ornithopod Atlascopcosaurus, also pterosaurs Mythunga and Aussiedraco
• Muttaburrasaurus is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons in Australia (after Minmi, an ankylosaur), and it was the first to be cast and mounted for display
• Fewer than 20 recognized species in Australia so far
• Can see Muttaburrasaurus skeleton/cast at the Queensland Museum, Flinders Discovery Centre, and National Dinosaur Museum, all in Australia
• The company Kellogg sponsored clearning up and putting Muttaburrasaurus on display in the museum
• Muttaburrasaurus will be one of the 10 dinosaurs in QUT’s The Cube, on display in December 2015
• Can see “Mutt” a full sized fiberglass statue near Main Street on Hughenden
• Also has a Muttaburrasaurus playground, Mimi, kids can climb through belly, slide down her tail (also a children’s book)
• Muttaburrasaurus appeared in a local community calendar, meant to raise money for a school and an ambulance defibrillator. People posed naked with props, and one elderly couple posed naked with a life sized Muttaburrasaurus replica
• Muttaburrasaurus was in an episode of Walking with Dinosaurs
• Muttaburrasaurus appears in Land Before Time III (a character named Mutt and his father) and in the TV show
• Also in the 1995 film, Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana, a short 30 minute film about a young Muttaburrasaurus that becomes separated from its mother
• In April 2015, the town Muttaburra honored Doug Langdon (who passed away last November at age 82 from cancer) with a special horse race, Doug Langdon Memorial race (paid him tribute by wearing black arm bands — race committee and jockeys)
• Muttaburrasaurus may become one of Australia’s state fossils (Queensland)
• So far, only two of Australia’s states have fossils, New South Wales (officiated by The Geological Survey of NSW) and Western Australia, which was picked based on public submissions
  The idea of having state fossils came from the U.S.; first states with fossil emblems were Louisiana (petrified palmwood), Main (prehistoric plant Pertica quadrifaria) and Georgia (shark tooth) back in 1976 (good for tourism)
• Australia’s first state fossil was announced in 1995 (WA, a fish, Mcnamaraspis kaprios), selected by a democratic process (teachers from a primary school in Perth heard about the US state fossils and lobbied the state government to have a state fossil, as an exercise for their students
• Government made a public call for fossils to consider as state fossils, the fish won based on a petition signed by nearly 1,000 people and supporting letters from international paleontologists
• In 2013, the Queensland Museum published a children’s book, Happy Birthday Muttaburrasaurus, to celebrate 50 years since the first bones from the dinosaur were discovered
• Rhabdodontids were herbivores and ornithopods that lived in the Cretaceous
• They had deep skulls and jaws
• Fossils have been found in Europe and Australia
• David Weishampel and colleagues proposed the family in 2002
• Depending on who you ask, Muttaburrasaurus is part of this family. The original definition did not include it, but Paul Sereno’s defintion that it is the most inclusive clade, containing Rhabdodon priscus but not Parasaurolophus walkeri, would include it
• Others include Rhabdodon, Zalmoxes and Mochlodon
• Fun fact: Some ornithischian dinosaurs evolved to have large beaks, and then because their beaks could help chop up their food, they didn’t need front teeth anymore. Eventually these groups lost their front teeth.