Episode 389: Your Questions Answered. Dinosaurs in Antarctica, how long humans would survive alongside dinosaurs in the Mesozoic, and many more questions answered.

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We answer the following questions:

• What “Dino of the day” most surprised you / most interested you in researching it for an episode?
• What famous dino field expedition would you liked to have been part of?
• Who of the early paleontologists do you wish you could have interviewed?
• If you had to take a side in the Bone Wars, would it be Marsh or Cope?
• Will there ever be a chance that your favorite groups of dinosaurs (sauropods and ankylosaurs) could change?
• What are your favorite non-saurian extinct animals?
• Do you have ancient plant or fungal life you find interesting?
• Did you have a favorite dinosaur toy growing up?
• How long would a human survive in the early-Triassic, mid-Jurassic, or end-Cretaceous?
• What is the Coolest fossil you have found or seen?
• What makes Velociraptor (and other feathered dinosaurs) dinosaurs and not birds?
• Which fossil most seems to be missing from the record, but you hope or expect to be found? Maybe a feathered T. rex?
• What is—and isn’t—known about dinosaur skin? How is it known, soft tissue preservation?
• Do you have a routine for how you do the research for each episode?
• Is there a specific specimen you want to visit and see someday?
• Have any dinosaur fossils been found in the in Antarctica? Is their any chance any skin, bone etc could be locked in the permafrost?

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The dinosaur of the day: Proa

• Basal iguanodont that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Teruel Province, Spain (Escucha Formation)
• Looks like other iguanodonts, with a long tail, bulky body, and could walk on all fours
• Had a relatively large head and was stocky
• Estimated to be 23 to 26 ft (7 to 8 m) long
• Type and only species is Proa valdearinnoensis
• Described in 2012 by Andrew McDonald and others
• Genus name means “prow”, and refers to the pointed shape of the predentary bone (lower jaw), that looks like the bow on a boat
• Species name refers to Val de Ariño, the traditional name for the coal mines, near where the fossils were found
• At least six individuals found, including a partial skeleton and nearly complete skull (five specimens described in the paper)
• More than 340 bones found
• Originally reported in 2005, as fragmentary remains from an indeterminate basal iguanodont
• Sister taxon to Batyrosaurus
• Unique features include the predentary coming to a point at the rostral margin (the tip)
• Helps fill a gap in the fossil record of basal European iguanodonts
• Three braincases found (two well preserved)
• CT scanned the braincases, and found that its encephalization quotient (EQ) was about 3.6, which is pretty high
• Helps show that there was a higher EQ for a short time in some ornithopods (not just theropods)
• Hypothesized that this higher EQ may have led to living in groups and caring for young
• Lived in a swampy environment with conifers, ferns, and flower plants
• More than 11,000 fossils found in the area since 2010
• Fossils found in amber in the area (often insects, but also mammal hair and a fragment of dinosaur feather)
• Have also recently found blood-sucking mosquitoes and dinosaur fossils together, which means mosquitoes may have bit the dinosaurs
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include the nodosaurid Europelta, allosauroids, iguanodontids, and titanosauriformes
• Other animals include fish, turtles, crocodiles, mammals, and insects

Fun Fact:

The word “mark” is an important term in ichnology, but its exact meaning is disputed.

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