The Big Dinosaur Podcast

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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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.

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs

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