Episode 465: Sauropodfest! 6 embryos and 3 adults from a new sauropodomorph; a new titanosauriform; and why sauropod necks are so much longer than giraffes.

News:

• A new sauropod species, Qianlong shouhu, was found with three adults and five clutches of eggs—including six embryos source
• There’s a new titanosauriform, Garumbatitan morellensis source
• A “coliseum” of over 1700 dinosaur tracks show a wide diversity of dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Alaska source
• Dinosaur eggshells found in North-eastern Russia provide clues as to how polar dinosaurs lived and reproduced source
• The Royal Tyrrell Museum now has the most complete Triceratops skull from Canada on display source
• Chomper, a juvenile T. rex, is expected to sell for $20 million source

The dinosaur of the day: Paludititan

• Titanosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Romania (Sânpetru Formation)
• Mentioned in episode 400, with the Ha?eg dinosaurs
• As a titanosaur, walked on four legs, had a long neck, long tail
• Some paleoart depicts it with a stout neck
• Relatively small, estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) long and weighing 1.1 tons
• Fossils found in 2002 during a Belgian-Romanian expedition
• Found a partial skeleton in floodplain deposits
• At the time, was the most complete sauropod found in Romania
• Named and described in 2010 by Zoltán Csiki and others
• Type species is Paludititan nalatzensis
• Genus name means “marsh titan”
• Species name refers to where the fossils were found, at Nala?-Vad
• Holotype is a partial skeleton without a skull, and includes vertebrae, part of the tail, part of the pelvis, part of the thighbone, and two toe claws
• At the time, thought it could be a specimen of Magyarosaurus (another titanosaur that lived around the same time and place), but didn’t have any shared distinguishing features and the fossils were found in a different location
• Unique features in details of the vertebrae, neural spines, and pelvis
• Second titanosaur described from the Hateg Basin, after Magyarosaurus
• Both Paludititan and Magyarosaurus are lithostrotians, derived titanosaurs that lived in the Early to Late Cretaceous. Many of them had osteoderms (but not all of them)
• A 2022 study of titanosaur tails found there may be four different sauropods in Ha?eg Island (Paludititan, Magyarosaurus, “Magyarosaurus hungaricus” and an unnamed species)
• Some of the vertebrae indicated there were medium-sized sauropods, so they wouldn’t be considered island dwarfs (which would show more complexity in how these sauropods evolved)
• A 2012 study examined egg clutches from the Hateg Basin, found in the same formation as Paludititan
• Found 11 clutches, of 40 eggs in total, all thought to be from the same dinosaur species
• Clutches averaged four eggs each, nearly 5 in (about 12 cm) in diameter
• Other sauropod egg sites found have about 15 eggs per clutch
• Not having too many eggs in one clutch may be part of the island effect, or adapting to the smaller body size due to the island effect
• Instead of laying smaller eggs, had fewer eggs
• Unclear which species these eggs belonged too, though the Hateg Basin was a major nesting site for dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous
• Eggs and eggshells looked similar to nemegtosaurid eggs found in Patagonia, Argentina
• Seems to be from a nemegtosaurid (Magyarosaurus is a nemegtosaurid, thought to have osteoderms)
• Found millimeter-sized embryonic integument with dermal papillae (dome-shaped features like the beginnings of osteoderms on very small piece of skin, looks similar to dermal papillae in modern crocodilians at a similar age). Embryo seems to have died before forming bones, however
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include the sauropod Magyarosaurus, the hadrosaur Telmatosaurus, the iguanodont Zalmoxes, the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus, and the apex predator, the pterosaur Hatzegopteryx

Fun Fact:

Giraffes have limitations on their neck lengths, which is why they can’t compete with sauropods

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