In our 43rd episode of I Know Dino, we had the pleasure of speaking with members of the team developing the amazing video game Saurian. According to their website, Saurian is a
“game focused on providing the most captivating prehistoric experience ever developed for commercial gaming: living like a true dinosaur in a dynamic open world through intense, survival based gameplay. Players will have the opportunity to take control of several different species of dinosaur in their natural environment. You will attempt to survive from hatchling to adult, managing physical needs, while avoiding predators and environmental hazards in a dynamic landscape reflecting cutting-edge knowledge of the Hell Creek ecosystem 66 million years ago.”
The game is still being developed, but the team is very committed and has some beautiful images and videos for fans to see. If you want to learn more about Saurian, check out their website, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.
We also talk about Acheroraptor, a dromaeosaurid and one of the four playable dinosaurs in the game Saurian.
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Acheroraptor, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Acheroraptor, whose name comes from Acheron, the River of Pain in the underworld in ancient Greek mythology; (because of Hell Creek Formation); raptor is Latin for robber (used for other dromaeosaurids); Acheron name shortened to sound better
- Lived in the Late Cretaceous
- Found in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana
- Holotype specimen found in 2009 by commerical fossil hunters, then purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum from a private collector
- Described and named by David C. Evans, Derek W. Larson and Philip J. Currie in 2013 in “A new dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) with Asian affinities from the latest Cretaceous of North America” paper in Naturwissenschaften
- One species: Acheroraptor temertyorum
- Name temertyorum is for husband and wife James and Louise Temerty, James is the chairman of Northland Power and the Royal Ontario Museum Board of Governors
- Acheroraptor known from an almost complete maxilla with teeth and an associated dentary (jawbones)
- The holotype is a nearly complete right maxilla, and there is also a nearly complete left dentary (anterior bone of the lower jaw), which is possibly from the same individual but that’s not confirmed
- Long snout, dagger like teeth and probaby covered in feathers
- Bipedal, about 10 ft (3 m) long and weighed about 88 lb (40 kg)
- Saurian has some beautiful concepts of Acheroraptor (you can find examples all over their website, plus an animated GIF that shows the process of a sketch of Acheroraptor, the result of a 9 hour long livestream session
- According to Saurian, Acheroraptor is completely covered in feathers, and has a dark, greenish body, with white feathers on its legs, and light brown feathers on the tail and arms
- Also, large eyes and menacing teeth
- And very bird like, and with the sickle claw
- Acheroraptor is also the first playable Saurian dinosaur released to the public. It won’t fly but may “fall with style”
- Can see a video of Acheroraptor in action, walking, running, eating, ruffling its feathers, jumping, gliding
- The discovery of Acheroraptor gives a lot of information about dinosaurs in North America in the Late Cretaceous. According to the paleontologists who named it, it shows there was possibly a decline in raptor diversity at that time
- Because Acheroraptor is so closely related to Asian species also from Late Cretaceous, suggests there were migrations from Asia until the end of the Cretaceous
- Acheroraptor is the only dromaeosaurid from the Hell Creek Formation, Evans, Larson and Philip found. This means teeth found previously of Dromaeosaurus and Saurornitholestes are now considered Acheroraptor
- Other theropods, not dromaeosaurids, from the Hell Creek Formation include tyrannosaurids, ornithomimids, troodontids, ornithischians, ceratopsians, hadrosaurs
- Acheroraptor is the geologically youngest known dromaeosaurid species
- Acheroraptor is considered to be a velociraptorine, more closely related to Asian dromaeosaurids such as Tsaagan and Velociraptor than Dromaeosaurus or others from North America
- Velociraptorinae is a subfamily of Dromaeosauridae
- Dromaeosaurids are carnivorous theropods closely phylogenetically related to Aves (a clade that includes birds)
- Probably originated before the Late Jurassic, but fossil record so far is only of Cretaceous
- Lived all over the world, but there are not that many fossils
- Dromaeosaurids from the Late Cretaceous in North America have a poor fossil record, mostly known from isolated teeth
- In North America, only 8 species named, based on incomplete fossil remains
- Often referred to as raptors (because of Jurassic Park)
- Dromaeosaurids had S-curved necks, long arms and large hands with large claws
- Feet had a recurved claw on the second toe (sickle claw)
- Claw may have been used for slashing, climbing, or even clawing through insect nests
- At least some may have lived in groups
- Most, if not all, had feathers
- Bipedal, but held their second toe off the ground when walking
- Had long tails, that may have been used to help counterbalance when running or in the air
- Generally small to medium sized (though Utahraptor was large)
- Some could fly or glide (like Changyuraptor yangi)
- Very birdlike (behavior and having feathers)
- Fun Fact: The K-T extinction wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and paved the way for mammals (and later humans), but the permian extinction or “the great dying” appears to have led the way to archosaurs and later dinosaurs
For those who may prefer reading, see below for the full transcript of our interview with the Saurian team (also, here’s a link to Be the Dinosaur, which Nick mentions in the interview):
