changyuraptor Archives - The Big Dinosaur Podcast

This Week in Dinosaur News: Deinonychus (and other “raptors”) probably didn’t hunt in packs

A velociraptor hunting solo, as implied by a recent study By Durbed [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s what came out this week in dinosaur news:

A 130 million year old fossil from Hebei Province in China has been found source
The “Baofenglong fossil” recently went on display at Chongqing Yongchuan Museum Town Hall in China. An 80% complete 49 ft (15 m) long herbivore source
Residents near the Tumbler Ridge Museum voted to fund the museum with added attractions and services source
More details from this years SVP conference (referred abstracts can be found in the PDF from the meeting) source
- Most sauropod fossils are from adults. Dwarf sauropods have a younger distribution, but still mostly adults.
- Several models of Yi qi extra wrist bone were proposed to find an orientation that may have worked with its patagial membranes
- Flight evolution can be categorized into 4 evolutionary phases: characters unrelated to flight, exapted traits, direct selection, and traits for longer flight duration
- Pterosaurs and maniraptorans couldn’t assume a bat-like pose
- Microraptor & Rahonavis could glide, Changyuraptor used it’s tail for pitch control, but troodontids were too big (relative to their wings) to get off the ground
- Ichthyornis has a skull half way between Archaeopteryx and modern birds
- “Birds are the only group of animals that rival mammals in terms of brain size”
- Sauropod trackway “gauge” might not mean much
- A synchrotron of coprolite from an early dinosaur like Silesaurus opelensis showed lots of beetle remains including wings & beetle tibia
- Based on carbon-13 isotopes in Deinonychus and Tenontosaurus it appears that raptors were not pack hunters
- Thanks to guinea fowl walking through soft mud we are closer than ever to recreate how dinosaurs made their tracks
- The pectoralis of Archaeopteryx was smaller than modern birds, but may have still been large enough to achieve brief flight
- A study of Psittacosaurus braincases shows that 2 year-old brains elongate significantly (midbrain & olfactory tract/bulbs especially)
- Ugrunaaluk was smaller than its massive cousins like Edmontosaurus, possibly because of dwarfism from living in the arctic reaching about 18-19ft long
- A new ceratopsian was found in Grand staircase Escalante National Monument

Check out these stories, our fun fact, interview with Jingmai O’Connor, and dinosaur of the day Zuniceratops in episode 206 of the I Know Dino Podcast!

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Zuniceratops (Episode 206)

Episode 206 is all about Zuniceratops, a ceratopsian that was discovered in New Mexico by an 8 year-old.

We also interview Jingmai O’Connor, professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who recently described the first ever fossilized dinosaur lung remains

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You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

A 130 million year old fossil from Hebei Province in China has been found source
The “Baofenglong fossil” recently went on display at Chongqing Yongchuan Museum Town Hall in China. An 80% complete 49 ft (15 m) long herbivore source
Residents near the Tumbler Ridge Museum voted to fund the museum with added attractions and services source
More details from this years SVP conference (referred abstracts can be found in the PDF from the meeting) source
- Most sauropod fossils are from adults. Dwarf sauropods have a younger distribution, but still mostly adults.
- Several models of Yi qi extra wrist bone were proposed to find an orientation that may have worked with its patagial membranes
- Flight evolution can be categorized into 4 evolutionary phases: characters unrelated to flight, exapted traits, direct selection, and traits for longer flight duration
- Pterosaurs and maniraptorans couldn’t assume a bat-like pose
- Microraptor & Rahonavis could glide, Changyuraptor used it’s tail for pitch control, but troodontids were too big (relative to their wings) to get off the ground
- Ichthyornis has a skull half way between Archaeopteryx and modern birds
- “Birds are the only group of animals that rival mammals in terms of brain size”
- Sauropod trackway “gauge” might not mean much
- A synchrotron of coprolite from an early dinosaur like Silesaurus opelensis showed lots of beetle remains including wings & beetle tibia
- Based on carbon-13 isotopes in Deinonychus and Tenontosaurus it appears that raptors were not pack hunters
- Thanks to guinea fowl walking through soft mud we are closer than ever to recreate how dinosaurs made their tracks
- The pectoralis of Archaeopteryx was smaller than modern birds, but may have still been large enough to achieve brief flight
- A study of Psittacosaurus braincases shows that 2 year-old brains elongate significantly (midbrain & olfactory tract/bulbs especially)
- Ugrunaaluk was smaller than its massive cousins like Edmontosaurus, possibly because of dwarfism from living in the arctic reaching about 18-19ft long
- A new ceratopsian was found in Grand staircase Escalante National Monument

The dinosaur of the day: Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops (request from Dinosaur4602, via youtube)
Phonetic: Zoo-nee-ceh-ra-tops.
Ceratopsian that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico, U.S. (in the Moreno Hill Formation)
Intermediate sized for a ceratopsian
About 9.8-11.5 ft (3-3.5 m) long
Weighed about 200-250 lb (100-150 kg)
Had a long, low snout
Had large brow horns, similar to chasmosaurs and primitive centrosaurs (slightly recurved)
Horns probably grew with age
First known ceratopsian to have brow horns
Did not have a nose horn
Had a thin, broad frill, with a pair of large holes that were covered with skin (made the frill larger than if it was solid)
Frill probably used for display (holes were not good for defense)
Shows the evolution of early ceratopsians and the later ceratopsids that had large horns and frills
At first, Zuniceratops was thought to have a strange squamosal, but a later study found that squamosal was actually an ischium of another dinosaur, the therizinosaur theropod Nothronychus (scientists found a bonebed and were able to determine what type of fossil it was)
First Zuniceratops found had single-rooted teeth, which was unusual for ceratopsians
But later finds had double-rooted teeth, which shows that teeth became double rooted when Zuniceratops aged
Found in 1996 by 8-year-old Christopher James Wolfe (son of Douglas Wolfe, a paleontologist)
Found one skull and fossils from a few individuals
Described in 1998 by Douglas Wolfe and James Kirkland
Type species is Zuniceratops christopheri
Name means “Zuni-horned face”
Zuni is in honor of the Zuni people, who lived in the region where Zuniceratops was found
Species name refers to Christopher James Wolfe
Oldest species found in North America, which helps show they evolved in North America, instead of Asia
Lived about 89-93 million years ago
Herbivore
Possibly lived in herds
Possible Zuniceratops track found in New Mexico. Researchers found 13 foot prints of small, medium, and large tyrannosaurs. The tracks are parallel, which may indicate a “family group, moving in concert,” according to Douglas Wolfe. The tracks start in a straight line and then change direction and veer off. Wolfe’s wife, Hazel, saw a round footprint where the tyrannosaur tracks swerve, and there are small piles of sediment that may indicate the animal with the round footprint kicked up some sand when it ran away. It’s possible the round footprint belongs to Zuniceratops. This track site may show tyrannosaurs hunted together, though would need more data to know for sure
Other dinosaurs found in the same area include an unnamed hadrosaur, a dromaeosaurid, and a therizinosaur
Can see Zuniceratops at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa
Can see on Discovery Channel’s When Dinosaurs Roamed America, aired in 2001

Fun Fact:

During the late cretaceous the average temperature in Utqiagvik, Alaska was ~37-47F (3–8C) today it averages just 10F (-12C). However, Juneau was about the same temperature as it is today 42F (6C). So dinosaurs found in different parts of Alaska would have had different climates and adaptations.

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I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Changyuraptor (Episode 22)

Episode 22 is all about Changyuraptor, a large, flying, non-avian dinosaur.

You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

In this episode, we discuss:

The dinosaur of the day: Changyuraptor yangi, which means “long feathered robber”
Changyuraptor is 125 million years old, not a bird, but a non-avian dinosaur that could probably fly
Lived in the Creteaceous period, in China (found in northeastern China, in the Liaoning Province)
Gang Han, a paleontologist from Bohai University, and his team described Changyuraptor in Nature Communications in July 2014
Similar to its close relative Microraptor (had “hindwings” on legs, elaborate tail feathers), but was much bigger. Microraptor was about the size of a hawk, while Changyuraptor was closer to an eagle’s size (4.3 feet long with tail feathers that were almost 1 foot long–the longest found on a non-avian dinosaur)
Changyuraptor had a 21 foot wingspan
Changyuraptor was NOT a bird (first birds descended from dinosaurs 25 million years earlier; Changyuraptor, like Microraptor, was a dromaeosaurid
Also NOT a pterosaur, a reptile known for its flying capabilities
Part of Microraptoria group, predatory dinosaurs with four wings (meaning they had such long feathers on their legs it looked like a second set of wings)
Still, it’s unclear how Changyuraptor moved through the air
Some paleontologists thought it may have flown with a spread-eagle or biplane posture, but the theory doesn’t fit with Changyuraptor’s anatomy, which probably wasn’t very flexible in the hips, like most theropods (they probably had their legs directly under their bodies while in the air)
May have climbed trees
They probably landed on the ground but spent a lot of time in trees
Probably used all their limbs to fly through dense trees
They could turn and brake fast, maybe to catch small prey
Changyuraptor is the biggest theropod with feathers on its “hindwings”, or lower hind limbs
Had feathers that covered its whole body
Tail feathers may have helped it land safely (more control)
The tail feathers helped slow down its landing (keep it from getting injured)
But it’s unclear if the four-wings was something only microraptorines had, or a common ancestor had
Because of its large size, it probably could not fly for long periods of time
Feathers on the arm were not well preserved, so scientists do not know how it supported its weight in the air
Changyuraptor’s tail feathers are about 30% the length of its skeleton
Feathers may have been used for display (brightly colored)
Weighed about 9 pounds and 60% larger than the last microraptorine found
When it lived, it’s habitat was a broad peninsula with volcanoes, moist forest with lots of conifer and ginkos, dry summers and cold winters
Lots of different carnivores and herbivores, including Yutyrannus also lived there
Also lots of birds, insects, primitive mammals, and some flowering plants, lived there (and lakes full of fish, frogs, and salamanders)
Not sure what Changyuraptor ate, but fish and bird bones were found in its guts, so may have eaten small prey (birds, lizards, salamanders, fish, mammals)
Changyuraptor is part of Microraptoria (which means “small one who seizes”)
Microraptoria is a clade of dromaeosaurids theropods (they’re the most primitive ones)
They lived 125 million years ago in China, and may have glided through trees
They were usually small, with adults being between 2.5-3 feet long and weighing up to 2.2 pounds (except Changyuraptor, which is huge by comparison)
Early birds (like Archaeopteryx) also have long feathers on their hindlimbs, like Microraptor and Changyuraptor, but modern birds usually have bald legs and fly with just two wings (not four)
Older dromaeosaurids appeared more bird like (Changyuraptor, at 125 million years, looked more like a bird than Velociraptor, at 75 million years)
Fun fact: The oldest known dinosaurs date back to 230 million years ago, and were found in Madagascar. A team of paleontologists, including researchers from UCSB, discovered them in 1999. Before they were found, the oldest known dinosaur was Eoraptor, a 228 million year old dinosaur whose name means “dawn thief”