Episode 53 is all about Dryosaurus, whose name means “tree lizard.”
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Dryosaurus
- Name means “tree lizard”, because of its habitat (forest), and not it’s oak-leaf like shape of its cheek teeth (as some people say)
- Lived in Jurassic
- Samuel Wendell Williston in Wyoming found ornithopod fossils in 1876. Charles Marsh named them a new species of Laosaurus (a hypsilophodont) in 1878, Laosaurus altus (altus means tall). In 1894, Marsh made it its own genus, Dryosaurus (an iguanodont)
- Type species is Dryosaurus altus
- Holotype is a partial skeleton with a mostly complete skull and lower jaws. Other specimens have been found (rear half of skeletons and partial skeletons)
- Other species have been named as part of Dryosaurus genus. One was on accident. In 1903, Giuseppe de Stegano accidentally renamed Crocodilus phosphaticus to Dryosaurus phosphaticus, but he meant to call it Dyrosaurus phosphaticus. Eric Buffetaut changed it to Dyrosaurus phosphaticus in 1981
- Valdosaurus canaliculatus and Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (episode 20) used to be considered to be Dryosaurus
- Fossils found in the U.S.
- Dryosaurus also found in Tanzania (sort of)
- In 1995, paleontologist Peter Galton wrote the paper “The Ornithopod Dinosaur Dryosaurus and a Laurasia-Gondwanaland Connection in the Upper Jurassic”
- The paper compared Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki from Tanzania, East Africa to Dryosaurus from the Morrison Formation in North America, and found similarities, which was more evidence there was a land connection between Laurasia and Gondwana in the Upper Jurassic period
- Dryosaurus had a long neck, long legs, and a long stiff tail
- About 8-14 ft (2.4-4.3m) long and weighed 170-200 pounds (77 to 91 kg)
- A dig site found near Uravan, Colorado has hundreds of D. altus fossils, with specimens from all ages
- All known specimens of Dryosaurus were still growing, so it’s unclear how big a fully grown adult got
- Herbivore, with beak and cheek teeth, and possibly cheek like structures to hold food in its mouth
- Ate low growing vegetation
- Short arms, with five digits on each hand
- Had three toes
- Fast runner, used tail to counterbalance
- Running away was probably main defense
- May have traveled in herds
- May have taken care of its young (eggs have been found Hypsilophodontid nests
- At Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, scientists found a Dryosaurus hatchling, which shows that like other vertebrates, baby Dryosaurus had large eyes and a small snout, and as it grew up eyes became proportionally smaller and snout proportionally longer
- Dinosaurs that lived alongside Dryosaurus was Camptosaurus, Stegosaurus, Othnielosaurus
- Predators included Saurophaganax, Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus, Stokesosaurus, Ornitholestes, and Allosaurus
- Can see a juvenile skull at the Carnegie Museum
- Juvenile skulls tend to be harder to find, because they are more fragile
- Mounted adult Dryosaurus at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is the only mounted Dryosaurus altus
- In August 2014, Dryosaurus was 3D printed
- Paleontologist Jeffrie Parker, and Kirk Brown from GoEngineer, a Stratasys retailer (3D printer) printed a model of Dryosaurus that Parker had found in Wyoming
- They scanned pieces of the Dryosaurus skull and bones then printed it on a Stratasys uPrint SE Plus 3D Printer (20 files, printed in 5 batches)
- Dryosaurus was the largest dinosaur 3D printed at GoEngineer (50 inches by 15 inches)
- According to Parker on the Stratasys blog, “3D printing allows a paleontologist to quickly reproduce a fossil bone that can be used for academic study and for building museum exhibits that can be enjoyed by everyone. Having a 3D printer is like having your own little robot factory.”
- GoEngineer printed two Dryosaurus skeletons, one for Parker to study and one to display for customers
- Next, Parker plans to print more 3D dinosaurs and create a tableau. He plans to print two Allosaurs and a Ceratosaur
- Dryosauridae, not to be confused with Dyrosauridae (a family of extinct crocodyliforms)
- Dryosaurids were primitive iguanodonts
- Lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous in Africa, Europe and North America
- Iguanodonts were herbivores that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous
- Includes Camptosaurus, Callovosaurus, Iguanodon, Tenontosaurus
- Fun Fact: Fossilized parasites in amber may have infected dinosaurs.
