Episode 219 is all about Nedoceratops, the lesser known ceratopsian in the Triceratops vs Torosaurus debate.
We also interview Denver Fowler & Liz Freedman Fowler, paleontologists who work at the Badlands Dinosaur Museum. Denver is the curator. Liz is an Associate Professor of Biology at Dickinson State University. They have worked on a nodosaur, tyrannosaur, ceratopsians, hadrosaurs, and other dinosaurs all over the world. Follow Denver on twitter and check out their upcoming conference.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- A new sauropod from Tanzania, Wamweracaudia, emerges from an analysis of 100+ sauropods source
- Dave Hone has a survey up to get feedback on his research impact source
- Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha Nebraska has a new indoor exhibit called Dinosaur UpRoar source
- There’s a new T. rex Science Center in the works in Charleston, West Virginia source
- Polish graphic designer Jans Bajtlik made a tie featuring a map of Warsaw and dinosaurs source
- Dead Sound released a short animated dinosaur story called Sharp Teeth source
The dinosaur of the day: Nedoceratops
- Ceratopsid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Wyoming, North America (Lance Formation)
- Part of the Triceratops / Torosaurus debate (discussed in episode Ultrasaurus – Episode 21)
- Controversial genus, some think it’s a valid genus and others think it is part of the Triceratops growth series
- Known from one skull
- Skull was 2.6 ft (1.8 m) long
- Skull was found in 1891 near Lightning Creek
- Skull has a rounded stump instead of a nasal horn and the brow horns are almost vertical. Otherwise, it’s similar to a Triceratops skull, but larger, and with a short face. Also, has large holes in the frill (different sizes), unlike Triceratops (could be a pathology or genetic)
- Lull thought the holes in the frill were from “accidental gorings” from another dinosaur, but it’s not clear if that’s true
- Type species is Nedoceratops hatcheri
- Name means “insufficient horned face” (for lack of a nasal horn)
- Nedoceratops has a couple other names: Diceratops and Diceratus
- Marsh started describing Nedoceratops in the 1800s, as part of his Ceratopsidae monograph. However, he died of pneumonia in 1899 before finishing, and John Bell Hatcher finished the Triceratops section (but he died in 1904 of typhoid fever before finishing), so Richard Swann Lull finished the monograph in 1905, and published Hatcher’s description of the skull separately and named it Diceratops hatcheri (means “two horned face”
- Lull didn’t actually believe it was a separate genus (thought it was a pathology), and in 1933 renamed it as Triceratops hatcheri
- In 2007, Andrey Sergeevich Ukrainsky renamed Diceratops / Triceratops as Nedoceratops (the name Diceratops was used for an insect)
- However, Octávio Mateus didn’t realize Ukrainsky had renamed the dinosaur, and renamed it Diceratus in 2008. Diceratus is now considered to be a junior synonym (since the name Nedoceratops came first)
- Debate about it being part of the Triceratops growth series (in between Triceratops and Torosaurus), and Scannella and Horner proposed Nedoceratops lost its nasal horn while alive or during fossilization. However, Farke said the shape of the horns and the texture of the bone suggest Nedoceratops was an “old adult” In 2013 Leonardo Maiorino and others found Triceratops and Torosaurus to be distinct genera
- Farke suggested the holes in the frill weren’t from gorings but from “the result of bone resorption in an area of the frill that was already thin to begin with.”
- Maiorino found that Nedoceratops “has a variable position relative to Triceratops and Torosaurus,” depending on what you’re looking at, and that the size of the skull could support the hypothesis of it being an intermediate between the two, but the shape of the skull is very different
- Some scientists think Nedoceratops could be a direct ancestor to Triceratops, or its nearest relative
- Need more fossils to know for sure about Nedoceratops, and to examine the bone microstructure
Fun Fact: Dinosaurs dominated the land on Earth for longer than any other group of animals.
Sponsors:
This episode is brought to you in part by Indiana University Press. Their Life of the Past series is lavishly illustrated and meticulously documented to showcase the latest findings and most compelling interpretations in the ever-changing field of paleontology. Find their books at iupress.indiana.edu
