The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 178 is all about Sinoceratops, a large ceratopsid dinosaur from China that will be in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom—although toys bearing its name are based on Pachyrhinosaurus.

Thank you! Thank you to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino.

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 Juvenile diplodocoid femur exposed in the rock-wall at Dinosaur National Monument appears to have bite marks
• Calcium isotopes in dinosaur teeth appear to show that spinosaurs ate more fish than their contemporary theropods
• A new unnamed dinosaur has been reported from a recent excavation in Cerra Guido, Chile
• A series of legal issues in India is reducing interest in paleontology, threatening the future of dinosaur bones in the country
• The auction in Paris last week ended with the Diplodocus and Allosaurus fossils going to an unnamed “foreign buyer” for about 3 million euros
• The theme park “Dinosaur World” in Beaver, Arkansas which closed in 2005 is full of slowly rusting dinosaur sculptures
• the iconic Horace the (sauropod) dinosaur, who could be seen between Cinderford and Gloucester, has moved
• A project in Dunedin, New Zealand, aims to overhaul a playground known as “dinosaur park“
• A controversial video shows an Air National Guard master sergeant saying her oath of re-enlistment using a dinosaur hand puppet.
• New Jurassic World costumes are coming in August including a Velociraptor, Triceratops, and Pteranodon
• The final new Jurassic World trailer has been released featuring some awesome dinosaur scenes (and other details)

The dinosaur of the day: Sinoceratops

• Appears in two of the trailers for Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom
• Centrosaurine ceratopsian that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Shandon province, China (Xingezhuang Formation)
• Found in 2008
• Named in 2010 by Xu Xing and others
• Type species is Sinoceratops zhuchengensis
• Name means “Chinese horned face from Zhucheng”
• Sina means China in Latin
• The city of Zhucheng financed the excavations
• Found three skulls in Zhucheng, China
• Holotype consists of a partial skull with a partial braincase
• Medium-sized, quadrupedal, and herbivorous
• One of the largest known centrosaurines
• Grew up to about 20 ft (6 m) long and weighed up to 2 tonnes
• Thomas Holtz Jr. estimated it could be up to 23 ft (7 m) long and weidghed 2.3 tonnes
• First ceratopsid found in China
• Only confirmed ceratopsid from Asia so far (advanced ceratopsian)
• Has features seen in both centrosaurines and chasmosaurines
• May help show more about ceratopsian evolution, and that ceratopsids evolved in Asia before going to North America, but need more fossils to know more
• Had a short, hooked nasal horn
• Did not have brow horns
• Had a short neck frill with forward curving hornlets that made it look like it had a crown. This row of hornlets had low knobs on the top of the frill (not found on any other ceratopsian)
• Other dinosaurs that lived at the same time and place include Shantungosaurus (hadrosaurid), Zhuchengceratops (ceratopsian), Huaxiaosaurus (hadrosaurid), Zhuchengtyrannus (theropod)

Fun Fact:

• Jurassic Park was originally released on June 11, 1993 in the USA. Which may be why Jurassic World 3 was announced for June 11, 2021

This episode was brought to you by:

TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and exhibits. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs.

Enter to win a TRX Dinosaurs-made 1:1 scale Velociraptor sculpture. It’s open to anyone in the US or Canada (except Quebec) ages 18 and older to win. Complete rules are at https://iknowdino.com/velociraptor-sculpture-sweepstakes-official-rules

This week’s link to enter is http://bit.ly/Dinosaur178