In our 185th episode we got to speak with John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at The Royal Veterinary College. He is leading the Dawn Dinos project, he worked on T. rex Autopsy, and he can be found on Twitter @JohnRHutchinson. He also writes the blog What’s in John’s Freezer?

Episode 185 also features Procompsognathus a small dinosaur which probably ate insects, lizards, and other small prey

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Dinosaurs may have originally evolved beaks so that they could develop faster—and spend less time vulnerable in eggs
• The global destruction of forests may have been a major factor in (most) dinosaurs going extinct
• At the Field Museum in Chicago, Maximo was repainted right before his debut
• There’s a new dinosaur-themed band called Bonehenge
• Some dinosaur casts will be in displayed at Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom movie premieres
• Frontier Development has released another video about Jurassic World Evolution
• Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom sponsored a video of dinosaur-costumed parkour scenes from the new movie
• Director JA Bayona talked about his work on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to Irish Times

The dinosaur of the day Procompsognathus

• Appears in the books, instead of Compsognathus (which are in the films). Somewhat venomous, and kill John Hammond at the end of the first book
• No evidence that it was venomous in real life
• Coelophysid that lived in the Triassic in what is now Germany (Löwenstein Formation)
• Name means “before elegant jaw” and comes from the name Compsognathus
• Compsognathus lived later, in the Jurassic
• Procompsognathus looks similar to Compsognathus, but no evidence that it was a direct ancestor
• Found in 1909 by Albert Burrer
• Holotype is an adult and included a crushed jaw, vertebrae, ribs, a forelimb, and hindlimbs
• Burrer sent the fossils to Professor Eberhaad Fraas to the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, and in 1911 Fraas referred to it as Hallopus celerrimus, and thought it was a jumping dinosaur that helped show the origin of birds. Then in 1913 Fraas officially named it Procompsognathus
• Type species is Procompsognathus triassicus
• In 1921 Friedrich von Huene referred two more specimens found in the same quarry (back in 1908) to Procompsognathus (included a partial skull and lower jaws, and a left hand
• However, there is controversy about von Huene’s referred specimens. John Ostrom in 1982 said they were from a different taxon, and Fabien Knoll in 2006 and 2008 found that they were a crocodylopmorph or some basal archosaur. Then in 2012 Knoll confirmed with a CAT-scan that one of the specimens was a crocodylomorph
• Lots of debate over where to place Procompsognathus in the dinosaur family tree
• May be most closely related to Segisaurus halli
• Lived in a dry, inland environment
• Small, light, bipedal
• Grew up to 3.3 ft (1 m) long, though estimates vary. Gregory Paul estimated it weighed 2.2 lb (1 kg), and was 3.6 ft (1.1 m) long
• Had long legs, short arms, and claws
• Probably a fast runner
• Had a stiff tail
• Had a slender snout, with lots of small teeth
• Probably ate insects, lizards, and small prey
• Other dinosaurs that lived in the same time and place included coelophysoids Halticosaurus and Dolichosuchus, sauropodomorphs Plateosaurus and Efraasia, as well as an unnamed herrerasaur and some theropods (found tracks only)
• Type specimen is at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, in Germany

Fun Fact:

The idea of “ancient DNA” predates Jurassic Park, including an essay by Charles Pellegrino in 1985 (five years before Jurassic Park was published) titled “Dinosaur Capsule” about bringing dinosaurs back to life—which was apparently inspired partly by flies trapped in amber.

This episode was brought to you by:

TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and exhibits. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs.

Enter to win a TRX Dinosaurs-made 1:1 scale Velociraptor sculpture. It’s open to anyone in the US or Canada (except Quebec) ages 18 and older to win. Complete rules are at https://iknowdino.com/velociraptor-sculpture-sweepstakes-official-rules

This week’s link to enter is http://bit.ly/Velociraptor185