Episode 334 is all about Erketu, a titanosaur with some seriously long neck vertebrae.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- A new abelisaurid named Llukalkan was found in Patagonia including a nearly complete skull source
- Analysis of the cretaceous rock in Mongolia shows a climate similar to Southern California source
- In Fujian Province, China, scientists have found a “dinosaur dance floor” with over 600 tracks uncovered so far source
- A large theropod track was found on the Yorkshire coast of England source
- The T. rex Trix was scanned, 3D printed at full scale, and assembled for a new dinosaur museum in Nagasaki, Japan source
- The Missouri Institute of Natural Science in Springfield is having a raptor run source
- Dinosaur National Monument is reopening the Quarry Exhibit Hall on May 1 source
- McAllen, Texas has a Dinos and Dragons Adventure Park from now until May 15 source
- St. Louis Post Dispatch shared 5 places people can dig for dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals source
- Universal Studios Hollywood recently updated Jurassic World – The Ride to include a 55ft long Indominus fighting T. rex source
The dinosaur of the day: Erketu
- Somphospondylan (titanosauriform) sauropod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia (Bayan Shireh Formation)
- Looks titanosaur-like, with columnar legs and a very long neck
- Had a very long neck relative to its body size (based on its elongate cervical vertebrae)
- Neck estimated to be twice as long as its body
- Don’t know how many vertebrae in the neck, only that each one was very long (but Daniel Ksepka estimated 14 or 15)
- Vertebra lengths ranged from 6.3 in (160 mm) to 19.2 in (489 mm)
- Had air cavities in the neck and larger vertebrae had a V-shaped notch
- Cervical neural spines were deeply bifurcated (5 through 9)
- Described in 2006 by Daniel Ksepka and Mark Norell
- Ksepka said, “It’s almost like having a bungee cord holding the neck up”
- Norell said, “On the weirdo index, this is pretty weird”
- No skull found
- Herbivorous and probably a high browser, with its long neck
- Type species is Erketu ellisoni
- Genus name is after Erketü, a form of the god Tengri (from Mongolian shamanism); Erketu Tengri is the Mighty Tengri, a creator-god who called Yesugei, the father of Genghis Khan, into being
- Species name is in honor of Mick Ellison, for his contributions to ongoing AMNH dinosaur research
- Fossils found during a field expedition in 2002 and 2003, as part of an American Museum of Natural History and Mongolian Academy of Sciences expedition
- Team found new locality Bor Guvé in the Bayan Shireh Formation
- Referred fossils described in 2010 (found three more cervicals in 2003)
- Fossils found include 8 cervical vertebrae (found articulated first through fifth cervical vertebrae and partial sixth, then later 3 more articulated cervical vertebrae, 7, 8, and 9), part of the right sternum, tibia, and fibula, with astragalus and calcaneum (ankle and heel bones)
- One of the first sauropods described from the Bayan Shireh Formation
- Estimated to be 49 ft (15 m) long and weigh 11,000 lb; though no dorsal vertebrae found (but hindlimb material helped with estimate)
- Right hindlimb bones found are similar to Gobititan, a titanosauriform found in China
- Fibula was longer than the tibia, but broken at the end
- Close relative of Euhelopus (sauropod found in China with forelimbs longer than hindlimbs)
- Lived near lakes and rivers, on a floodplain, in a semi-arid climate
- Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place included the dromaeosaur Achillobator, the hadrosauroid Gobihadros, the ankylosaur Talarurus, the therizinosaurs Erlikosaurus and Segnosaurus
- Also found with fossilized fruits (that resemble okra), and turtles
Fun Fact: Stegosaurus had alternating plates on its back, but other stegosaurs have been found with pairs of plates.
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