Episode 364 is all about Palaeoscincus, the “ancient skink” that was named after a single tooth, but is now considered dubious.

We also interview Sterling Nesbitt, an associate professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of Geosciences, a research associate/affiliate of a number of museums, who has over 100 publications focusing on the origin of dinosaurs and their early evolution.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Hadrosaur beaks, Hesperornis, & Ichthyornis talks from the Avialan Evolution & Biology session at SVP 2021 source
• A recent paper has tips on staying safe while conducting field work source
• A new list of resources has recommendations for LGBTQA+ paleontologists and students source
• Another list of resources has recommendations for taking care of your mental health source
• Dippy is headed back to the Natural History Museum in London from Summer 2022 through December 2022 source
• The American Heritage Center in Wyoming has a digital replica of the Triceratops from the original King Kong movie source
• The Buffalo Museum of Science in New York will have the traveling exhibit Antarctic Dinosaurs starting in February source
• Flint Hills Discovery Center in Kansas has the exhibit Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas until January 2nd source
• The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, just received five Guinness World Records for their fossil collections (mostly dinosaurs) source

The dinosaur of the day: Palaeoscincus

• Dubious ankylosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Montana, US (Judith River Formation)
• Looks like other ankylosaurs, often depicted with armor like Edmontonia with spikes along the sides of the body and a tail club
• Probably had a low, broad body, and stout limbs
• Herbivorous
• Type and only species is Palaeoscincus costatus
• Genus name means “ancient skink”
• Species name means “the ribbed one”
• First ankylosaur named based on fossils found in the U.S.
• Named by Joseph Leidy in 1856 based on one tooth
• Tooth found by Ferdinand Hayden
• Joseph Leidy, 1856 wrote “Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes, discovered by Dr. F. V. Hayden in the Bad Lands of the Judith River, Nebraska Territories”
• Two paragraphs about Palaeoscincus, includes: “The fang is flattened cylindrical and is hollow”
• Leidy described it more in 1859
• O.C. Marsh wrote in 1892, “Notes on Mesozoic vertebrate fossils”
• Marsh said “many similar teeth have since been found, both in the Judith Basin and in various other localities of the Laramie”
• Said a smaller species found in Wyoming, and called it Palaeoscincus latus
• Said the crown of the tooth was broader and the apex more pointed
• Also said a tooth Cope described in 1882 as a mammalian premolar and the type of Meniscoessus belongs to Palaeoscincus or something similar
• Walter Coombs Jr. in 2010 wrote, “Teeth and taxonomy in ankylosaurs”
• Said there were five sources of dinosaur teeth variation: positional, ontogenetic, intraspecific, taxonomic, and chimeric
• Examples of positional variation include tooth size, number of cusps, where in the dental row the tooth is from, and ornamentation, such as grooves or ridges or serrations
• Said teeth are rarely analyzed with enough detail to name a new taxon based on teeth
• Said Palaeoscincus costatus is a nomen dubium, because not enough detail to tell the difference based on its tooth
• Other Palaeoscincus species that have since been reassigned:
• Palaeoscincus africanus, named in 1910/1912 by Robert Broom based on a partial jaw found in the Kirkwood Formation of South Africa, now known as the stegosaurid Paranthodon
• Palaeoscincus asper, named by Lawrence Lambe in 1902 (means “the rough one”), based on a tooth found in Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada. Now considered to be Euoplocephalus
• Palaeoscincus latus, named by O.C. Marsh in 1892 (means “the wide one”) based on a tooth found in the Lance Formation in Wyoming. Now thought to be a pachycephalosaurid
• Palaeoscincus rugosidens, named by Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1930 (means “rough tooth”), based on a skull and partial skeleton found in the Two Medicine Formation in Montana. Now thought to be Edmontonia or Chassternbergia (most illustrations based on this one)

Fun Fact: The “duck test” is wrong and the Digesting Duck automaton can’t digest anything.

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