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The Big Dinosaur Podcast

The Big Dinosaur Podcast

A site about dinosaurs

Episode 296: Dilophosaurus had tall air-filled crests

Episode 296 is all about Daemonosaurus, the small, buck toothed, Triassic carnivore from New Mexico.

Big thanks 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:

  • Oculudentavis is now officially just HPG-15-3 after the Nature article describing it was retracted source
  • A thorough reanalysis of Dilophosaurus specimens clarified its features and relationship to other dinosaurs source
  • A pair of Bissektipelta braincases shows details of how its blood vessels worked source
  • According to NPR, one-third of the museums in the U.S. may permanently close this year source
  • The Quarry Exhibit Hall at Dinosaur National Monument has reopened with timed tickets source
  • Dinosaur Adventure Drive-Thru is in St. Paul, Minnesota through August 9th source
  • Bryce Dallas Howard shared some photos on Twitter of the bruises she’s gotten doing stunt work for Jurassic World Dominion source
  • In August, the Jurassic Park Trilogy is coming back to Netflix in the US source
  • The trailer for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous was released source

The dinosaur of the day: Daemonosaurus

  • Basal theropod that lived in the Late Triassic in what is now New Mexico, US (Chinle Formation at Ghost Ranch)
  • Some estimates to be about 5 ft (1.5 m) long, others estimate 7 ft (2.2 m) long and weighed 49 lb (22 kg)
  • Probably about the same height as a tall dog
  • Skull was about 5.5 in (14 cm) long
  • Had very large eye sockets
  • Had a short skull and long teeth, which was different from other early theropods that had long heads and jaws
  • Carnivorous, had serrated teeth
  • Had large premaxillary and maxillary teeth in the upper jaw (large front teeth)
  • The first two teeth in the lower jaw are large
  • Had heterodont teeth (different shaped teeth)
  • Premaxilla (tip of the upper jaw) and the front upper (anterior maxillary) jaw teeth are very large compared to the back upper (posterior maxillary) teeth
  • Hans Dieter-Sues said the large front teeth were good for seizing and killing prey, and it probably had a powerful bite becuase of the short, deep snout (according to LiveScience)
  • Only the holotype has been found
  • Holotype includes a nearly complete skull, vertebrae, and ribs
  • Skull was nearly complete but crushed
  • Type species is Daemonosaurus chauliodis
  • Genus name means “demon lizard”, and refers to the legends about evil spirits at Ghost Ranch
  • Species name means “buck toothed” or “prominent toothed” or “outstanding teeth”
  • Fossils were found by E.H. Colbert in the 1980s
  • Found in a block of mudstone
  • The mudstone was on loan from Carnegie Museum to the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and visitors could watch volunteers prepare the rock. A volunteer found the Daemonosaurus skull
  • Named in 2011 by Hans-Dieter Sues and others
  • Unclear if the holotype is an adult or juvenile (large eye sockets and no fused bones between braincase bones point to juvenile, but sutures on vertebrae near the skull are closed like an adult’s)
  • Found with fossils of Coelophysis
  • Colbert said in 1989 that Daemonosaurus and a few Coelophysis were washed into a small pond, then they drowned and were buried quickly after
  • Lived in a warm, monsoon-like climate with lots of rain
  • Lots of prey around, and animals in general (Coelophysis, reptiles, fish)
  • Vegetation included conifers, ferns, horsetails
  • Lots of animals found close together, probably because of a flash flood
  • Before Daemonosaurus was found, there was a gap in the Mid Triassic and paleontologists thought these early carnivores had gone extinct (now know they were diverse and lived in the Late Triassic)
  • Helps show the diversity of early theropods
  • Helps show that theropods had different skull shapes
  • Different skull shapes meant different feeding strategies, so they could co-exist
  • Daemonosaurus helps show the link between basal and later theropods
  • Based on its features, looks like a mix of early theropods like Eodromaeus (from South America) and more advanced theropods like Tawa (also from Ghost Ranch), but it lived after both Eodromaeus and Tawa, so it’s very strange and probably means Daemonosaurus came from early theropods that came to North America and lived alongside newer evolving theropods. One of the features is cavities on some of the neck vertebrae related to the structure of the respiratory system, according to Hans-Dieter Sues, which is the type of respiratory system we see in neotheropods and modern birds
  • Hans-Dieter Sues said Daemonosaurus may be part of a dinosaur lineage that didn’t evolve later in the Mesozoic
  • Daemonosaurus fossils are now in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Fun Fact: There are many animals (and likely dinosaurs) that benefit from forest fires.

Episode 265: Lice eating dinosaur feathers

Episode 265 is all about Altirhinus, an Iguanodontian with both a beak and teeth for chewing.

Interview with Mel Murray, Science Communicator and Digital Content Producer at the Australian Museum in Sydney. She made the corresponding app for the Tyrannosaurs: Meet the Family exhibition. And she’s working to digitize fossils for public use. Follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter, and check out the video of our visit.

Big thanks 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 new Middle Jurassic ornithischian, Sanxiasaurus, was found near the Three Gorges Dam in China source
  • Two new pieces of 100 million-year-old amber were found with lice feeding on dinosaur feathers source
  • Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s Great Hall will be closing on Dec 31 for its renovations source
  • Mary Anning may finally get her statue in Lyme Regis after another 15,000 pounds were donated to the town source
  • A team from UC Berkeley created a digital T. rex that is able to kick a soccer ball source
  • Monroeville Convention Center in Pennsylvania will have a Dinosaur Adventure exhibit source
  • Colin Trevorrow recently posted a video on Twitter of a dinosaur robot from Jurassic World 3 source

The dinosaur of the day: Altirhinus

  • Iguanodontian ornithopod that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia (Khukhtek Formation)
  • Estimated to be 21 ft (6.5 m) long, and weigh 1.1 tonnes
  • Herbivorous
  • Had a wide mouth and a tall arch on the top of its snout
  • Had a beak that could crop food (also had teeth to chew)
  • Had a wide snout, which may have helped with grazing food on the ground
  • Had a gap between the beak and the back teeth (diastema), so it could crop plants and chew at the same time
  • Nasal arch may have helped it cool down, or preserved moisture, or helped its sense of smell
  • Could also have been for display or helped with communication
  • Forelimbs were about half the length of hindlimbs
  • The first digit in the hands were spikes, like Iguanodon’s thumb spikes
  • May have used for defense, or to break open seeds or fruit
  • The fifth digit of the hand was opposable-ish and may have helped with grabbing food
  • Had thick wrist bones, and the three middle digits of the hands were wide, could extend out, and ended in hoof like bones, which shows they could support weight
  • Bipedal and quadrupedal (probably walked and ran on two legs and probably was on all fours when eating food from the ground)
  • Type species is Altirhinus kurzanovi
  • Genus name means “high snout”
  • Species name is in honor of Russian paleontologist Sergei Kurzanov, who found the original specimens
  • Found in 1981 during expeditions by Soviet and Mongolian scientists
  • Several specimens found, different sizes and ages (at least five specimens, and two were juveniles)
  • Originally classified as Iguanodon orientalis (described in 1952)
  • Iguanodon orientalis was found to be too fragmentary, not have enough unique features, and be too similar to Iguanodon bernissartensis (and type specimen of Iguanodon orientalis was found to be different from the Altirhinus specimens found in 1981)
  • So David Norman named Altirhinus kurzanovi in 1998
  • May have lived among Psittacosaurus and Shamosaurus, an ankylosaurid

Fun Fact: Lice feed on almost every modern species of mammal and bird—and likely most Mesozoic dinosaurs with feathers as well.

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I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Tsintaosaurus (Episode 241)

Episode 241 is all about Tsintaosaurus, a hadrosaur with a distinctive “unicorn-like” head crest.

We also interview David Evans, a prolific researcher, associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

Big thanks 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

With David Evans and Zuul, at the Royal Ontario Museum

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • A new dinosaur, Vespersaurus paranaensis, with one large middle toe and two small slashing claws was discovered source
  • The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia has a new Dinosaurs Around the World exhibit source
  • In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are animatronic dinosaurs at West Lothian shopping center source
  • The Peoria, Illinois Riverfront Museum is getting the AMNH T. rex exhibit in 2021 source
  • Runescape is getting an update called The Land Out of Time with dinosaurs source
  • Apex Legends 2 is getting “dangerous dinosaurs” source
  • Jurassic World Alive has an update, where you can feed and play with your dinosaurs in new “sanctuaries” source

The dinosaur of the day: Tsintaosaurus

  • Hadrosaurid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now China (Jingangkou Formation)
  • About 27 ft (8.3 m) long and weighed 2.5 tonnes
  • Herbivore, had a dental battery and a “duck bill”
  • Mostly quadrupedal, but could rear up on two legs when on the lookout and to run away from predators, or to eat
  • May have lived in herds
  • Fossils found in 1950
  • Described in 1958 by C. C. Young (Yang Zhongjian)
  • Type species is Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus
  • Name means “qingdao lizard” (old transliteration, which is transferring one letter of the alphabet of one language to the other, of Tsingtao)
  • Qingdao is a city
  • Species name means “with a nose spine”
  • Holotype consists of a partial skeleton with a skull (paratype found, with a skull roof)
  • Often talked about as a “unicorn-like” dinosaur
  • Young thought Tsintaosaurus had a unicorn-like crest on its skull (with a fork at the end), about 15.7 in (40 cm) long and nearly vertical from the back of the head, and that the crest was hollow
  • Other partial skeletongs and disarticulated elements were found in the same area. Some Yang referred to Tsintaosaurus, others were named Tanius chingkankouensis or Tanius laiyangensis
  • Rozhdestvensky and Taquet considered Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus to be a junior synonym of Tanius sinensis
  • Not everyone agreed
  • In 1990, David Weishampel and Jack Horner said the crest was not hollow and may have actually been a broken nasal bone from the top of the snout, and if Tsintaosaurus didn’t have a distinct crest, it may have been a synonym of Tanius (which looked similar but didn’t have a crest). They thought Tsintaosaurus was a chimera
  • Then in 1993 Eric Buffetaut and in 1995 Haiyan Tong-Buffetaut found that the crest was correct (upright) and described a second specimen with a vertical crest, which helped show the crest was real, and Tsintaosaurus was distinct because of it
  • In 2013 Albert Prieto-Márquez and Jonathan Wagner reconstructed Tsintaosaurus and found the crest was the rear part of a larger head crest that started at the tip of the snout, and included fused nasal bones that made a hollow tubular structure. The crest would have been mostly vertical but pointed a little to the back of the head (may have initially looked vertical because of the way it fossilized)
  • Crest was hollow and domed
  • They found that the tubular structure was not an air passage and suggested it helped make the crest less heavy
  • Nasal passage passes through the crest
  • Nasal passages may have allowed Tsintaosaurus to make low-frequency noises
  • Main part of the crest hasn’t been yet found but would have been made of premaxillary bones
  • Also found that Tsintaosaurus had several distinct traits, including a round, thick rim of is upper beak
  • Classified as a lambeosaurine
  • Can see Tsintaosaurus in Jurassic World: Evolution

Fun Fact: Living dinosaurs (birds) are the only amniotes with colored eggs. They probably evolved in Archosauria, possibly within Eumaniraptora.

This Week in Dinosaur News: The new largest bird of the Jurassic, Alcmonavis

The clawed wing of Alcmonavis, the now-largest-known bird from the Jurassic
Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43789.002

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

  • A single wing of Alcmonavis, the larger cousin of Archaeopteryx was described source
  • Thomas Carr visited the Tufts-Love T. Rex and thinks it might help settle the Nanotyrannus debate source
  • Maximo the titanosaur at the Field Museum now has its own AI messaging program source
  • Thanks to a recent donation, Rowan University plans to build a new Fossil Park source
  • Scotty the T. rex is on display in Eastend, Saskatchewan, Canada source
  • The Houston Zoo in Texas has a dinosaur exhibit from May 25 until September 2 this year source
  • The owner of the Flintstones style house in In California is being sued for adding dinosaurs and landscaping source

Check out these stories, our fun fact, and dinosaur of the day Agathaumas in episode 234 of the I Know Dino Podcast!

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Agathaumas (Episode 234)

Episode 234 is all about Agathaumas, the ceratopsid that was a ceratopsid before we knew what ceratopsids were.

Big thanks 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.

Get our new gear at bit.ly/iknowdinostore

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 single wing of Alcmonavis, the larger cousin of Archaeopteryx was described source
  • Thomas Carr visited the Tufts-Love T. Rex and thinks it might help settle the Nanotyrannus debate source
  • Maximo the titanosaur at the Field Museum now has its own AI messaging program source
  • Thanks to a recent donation, Rowan University plans to build a new Fossil Park source
  • Scotty the T. rex is on display in Eastend, Saskatchewan, Canada source
  • The Houston Zoo in Texas has a dinosaur exhibit from May 25 until September 2 this year source
  • The owner of the Flintstones style house in In California is being sued for adding dinosaurs and landscaping source

The dinosaur of the day: Agathaumas

  • Ceratopsid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Wyoming, U.S.
  • Dubious genus (nomen dubium) because not many fossils found, and of those found, nothing diagnostic
  • Not much found, only hip bones, hip vertebrae, and ribs
  • Bones are part of the AMNH collections
  • Estimated to be about 30 ft (9 m) long, and weigh 6 tonnes
  • Found in 1872, by Fielding Bradford Meek and Henry Martyn Bannister, who were looking for fossil shells (worked for Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden’s Geological Survey of the Territories)
  • They let Edward Cope know, and Cope published a name and description later that year, 1872
  • First named ceratopsian
  • When it was discovered, it was the largest known land animal
  • Name means “great wonder”
  • Cope named it Agathaumas sylvestris (“marvelous fossil dweller”) because it was so large, and because the fossils were found in rock that indicated a forest habitat (leaf fossils)
  • In 1873 Cope said it was “the wreck of one of the princes among giants”
  • Because Agathaumas was the first named ceratopsian (before ceratopsians were a thing), Cope didn’t know how to classify it, and considered it to be a hadrosaur until Marsh described Triceratops in 1889
  • Other species were considered to be Agathaumas (flabellatus, milo, monoclonius, mortuarius, prorsus, sphenocerus) but were later found to be either nomen dubium or included with other genera (three of them became Triceratops)
  • Possibly a synonym of Triceratops, but hard to tell because not enough fossils
  • No skull material found for Agathaumas (would help to determine if it is a separate genus)
  • Charles Knight illustrated Agathaumas in 1897, based on the partial skull of Agathaumas sphenocerus (later known as Monoclonius sphenocerus and then possibly Styracosaurus), and gave it a large nasal horn and small horns over the eyes
  • Knight’s painting was used as a model for Agathaumas in the 1925 silent film, The Lost World
  • Painting was of Agathaumas sphenocerus, not the type species Agathaumas sylvestris

Fun Fact: Birds have very different leg proportions from the extinct theropod dinosaurs we know and love, so even flightless birds may not be a great model for theropod movement.

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