The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 235 is all about Talarurus, the “wicker tailed” ankylosaurid from Mongolia.

We also have an interview with Brian Engh, a paleoartist, who has illustrated many of the recent dinosaur finds including Aquilops, Dynamoterror, and Invictarx, to name a few. He also makes puppets, movies, and music. Follow him on Patreon at historianhimself, or Facebook, twitter, YouTube, or his website.

In the interview, we learn about some of Brian’s latest projects, including his work with:

• Western Science Center,
• National Aviary, and
• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Ambopteryx, the new membrane-winged dinosaur, adds details that were missing from the Yi qi discovery source
• Workers on a construction site in Colorado found some ceratopsian fossils source
• Four college students found a clutch of dinosaur egg fossils while on a walk in the countryside in China source
• The Museum of New Zealand of Te Papa Tongarewa has a new display featuring an Iguanodon tooth source
• The museum “MOST” in Syracuse, New York is getting a permanent, 3,000 square foot dinosaur exhibit called Dino Zone source
• A massive dinosaur named Ichiro was built for Burning Man, but is in Washington D.C. until this summer source
• An engineering student built a PVC raptor puppet in her free time source
• Quirky Berkeley has a treasure-hunt page dedicated to dinosaurs you can find around Berkeley, California source
• In Bozeman, Montana, Gallatin High School has just made a raptor their new mascot source

The dinosaur of the day: Talarurus

• Ankylosaurid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia (Bayan Shireh Formation)
• Quadrupedal, herbivorous
• Had a beak-like snout, probably snipped off vegetation
• Estimated to be between 13 to 20 ft (4 to 6 m) long, and weigh about 2 tonnes
• Had armor on its body and a club tail
• Has been described as having five fingers and four toes, but an articulated foot wasn’t found, and according to Victoria Arbour, it may have had only three toes, like other ankylosaurids.
• Also described as having pleated spines on the armored plates and osteoderms with furrowed ornamentation (lines or grooves), but these were half rings that protected the neck
• However, Talarurus had a long, narrow skull, a relatively small tail club, ribbed armor plates, and wide bones (relative to its length) behind the skull
• One of the oldest known ankylosaurines from Asia
• Found in 1948 in a joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition
• Holotype includes a fragmentary skull, some vertebrae, some ribs, humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, fibula, and more, including some armor and scutes
• Six individuals found in the site
• Another specimen found in 1975, has top of a skull and a fragmentary skeleton
• More specimens have been found since 2006 (at least a dozen specimens found, in total)
• Described in 1952 by Evgeny Maleev
• Type species is Talarurus plicatospineus
• Genus name means “Wicker tail” or “basket tail”
• Genus name refers to the club tail that looks like a wicker basket (interlaced bony structs that looks like a wicker basket weave)
• Species name means “folded thorny” and refers to the corrugated (alternate ridges and grooves) spines on the armor plates
• Maryanska renamed Syrmosaurus disparoserratus as a second species, Talarurus disparoserratus in 1977. Then in 1987 it was renamed Maleevus disparoserratus
• Part of Ankylosaurinae
• Probably lived in lowland floodplains
• Other dinosaurs that lived in the same time and place include dromaeosaurids, therizinosaurs, and other ankylosaurs
• Skeletal mount at the Moscow Palaeontological Institute, based on the six individuals and a skull modeled after Pinacosaurus (but not too accurate)

Fun Fact: Ankylosaurs are usually found alone, but there is some evidence that they may have lived in groups.