The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 150 is all about Antetonitrus, a sauropodomorph whose name means “Before the thunder,” because it lived before Brontosaurus.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Oviraptor Heyuannia laid blue-green eggs
• New titanosaur from Tanzania named Shingopana songwensis—Swahili for Wide Neck from Songwe
• Paleontologist Jordan Mallon has lifted out his Chasmosaurus skull from the badlands with a helicopter
• In addition to California, both Arkansas and Connecticut also named state dinosaurs in 2017
• The University of Kansas museum has a new T. rex skeleton
• The Western Australian Museum in Perth, Australia has a new exhibit called Dinosaur Discovery: Lost Creatures of the Cretaceous
• The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University also has a new exhibit, called Tiny titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies
• Extreme Dinosaurs: The Exhibition, opens October 12 in Orlando, Florida
• In Deadwood, South Dakota, Deadwood History Inc. is hosting a Dinosaur Workshop
• Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont, Texas, will have a Dinosaur Day on October 28
• The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hosting a Homeschool Day on November 8
• The BBC is making a film by Chris Packham which will try to demystify T. rex. Cleverly called called T. rex
• Robert Legere, a Canadian photographer, has been taking photos of British Columbia with dinosaur models for the past year
• If you have Hulu, you can now stream the 90’s TV show Dinosaurs.

The dinosaur of the day: Antetonitrus

• Sauropodiforme that lived in the Triassic/Jurassic (boundary) in what is now South Africa (Elliot Formation)
• Named in 2003 by Adam Yates (co-authored by James Kitching)
• Type species (and only species) is Antetonitrus ingenipes
• Name means “Before the thunder”, which refers to it existing before Brontosaurus and other known sauropods
• Species name means “massive foot”
• Fossils were found in 1981 by Kitching, and they were stored at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
• They were originally labeled as Euskelosaurus, until Yates suggested they were a separate taxon
• The holotype consists of vertebrae and bones from the forelimb and hind limb
• Five limb bones from a smaller specimen were also referred to Antetonitrus
• Holotype was about 26-33 ft (8-10 m) long, but the neural arches of the vertebrae were not fused with the centra, so it may not have been fully grown
• Had a long neck
• Skull is not known
• Mostly quadrupedal herbivore, but had primitive adaptations to use forelimbs for grasping, in addition to supporting its weight
• Had forelimbs that were longer than its hindlimbs
• The first digit of its hand (the “thumb” or pollex”) were still flexible and capable of grasping (later sauropods had large, thick wrist bones, and their hands were locked in a way to support its weight full time)
• Antetonitrus did have broader, thicker wrist bones, so it shows an adaptation
• Feet show the beginning of developing to support great weight
• Also the first toe on its foot had a claw, though it wasn’t sickle shaped like in later sauropods
• Could be a transitional link between bipedal sauropodomorphs and quadrupedal sauropods
• Not necessarily a direct ancestor to sauropods however. Scientists have classified it as a sauropodiforme (an animal that has features related to the origin of sauropods)
• Closely resembles Blikanasaurus and Lessemsaurus (but both of those are poorly known)

Fun Fact:

Back in 2007 the lead author on the crustaceans-in-poo article, Karen Chin, also reported on dinosaurs eating wood. That time while studying the Two Medicine formation and coprolite believed to be from Maiasaura.

• ~74–80MYA formation
• Identified as coprolite by dung beetle burrows
• Cited lack of twigs as intentionally eating wood
  • Not accidental while eating leaves
  • Conifer wood accounted for 13%–85% of each coprolite
• This wood was also decaying (fungus), possibly meaning that the fungus broke down the wood into something bioavailable
  • Even hadrosaurs with their grinding teeth and massive stomachs couldn’t get much nutritional value from wood
  • Cited this as a potentially useful resource given the overall lack of grasses and other angiosperms that modern herbivores prefer