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The Big Dinosaur Podcast

The Big Dinosaur Podcast

A site about dinosaurs

Episode 317: A compsognathid with a mane

Episode 317 is all about Protohadros, a hadrosauroid ornithopod found near Dallas, Texas.

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.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • The new compsognathid, Ubirajara, was covered in simple fuzzy feathers, and a few very long ones source
  • The publication of Ubirajara has sparked controversy over its export from Brazil to Germany source
  • A man in Oakland, CA has been making and selling dinosaur menorahs from dinosaur toys for a few years source
  • A sauropod statue was lit up in Glasgow, Virginia complete with a red bulb on its snout source
  • Stirling Scotland has a new outdoor animatronic dinosaur exhibit source
  • Universal has made some new dinosaur animatronics for their upcoming Beijing Jurassic World attraction source
  • Ark: Survival Evolved is getting a sequel called Ark II, the trailer features Vin Diesel fighting dinosaurs and hominids source
  • A new article discusses how the card game Dinosaurs Attack! was almost made into a movie by Tim Burton source
  • Brian Henson’s Dinosaurs is coming to Disney+ on January 29 source
  • There is a GoFundMe for Paleontologist Jim Kirkland to help cover some recent medical expenses source
  • A video of a supposed Triceratops getting off a truck in Thailand is definitely a puppet source

The dinosaur of the day: Protohadros

  • Ornithopod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Texas, US
  • Lived about 95 million years ago
  • Herbivorous
  • Skull was about 28 in (70 cm) long
  • Estimated to be 23 ft (7 m) long and weigh 2 tons
  • Holotype found in the Woodbine Formation in Texas, and includes a partial skull, ribs, hand ungual and neural arch
  • Holotype was a subadult, so may have gotten bigger
  • Not clear exactly how it looked based on fragments found
  • Based on paleoart, looks a lot like Edmontosaurus in body shape
  • Hind legs were probably longer than the front legs
  • Could move quadrupedally or bipedally
  • Had large, deep lower jaws, and snout turned down at the front
  • Possibly a low-browser, ate swamp plants that grew in delta streams (scooped up plants with its mouth)
  • Could partially grind food. Had pleurokinesis (cranial joint system) but the back of the skull was still pretty immobile
  • Type species is Protohadros byrdi
  • Gary Byrd found the ribs and ungual in 1994 at Flower Mound, Denton County in Texas, when he was examining a road. He told Yuong-Nam Lee, who arranged the excavation
  • First reported in 1996 by Jason Head from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Southern Methodist University
  • Described and named in 1998 by Jason Head
  • Genus name means “first hadrosaur”
  • Jason Head thought it was the oldest known hadrosaur
  • Species name is in honor of Gary Byrd
  • First thought to be the most basal hadrosaurid, and at the time of discovery thought to show that hadrosaurids didn’t evolve in Asia, but now it’s considered to be a less derived iguanodontian
  • Now considered to be a non-hadrosaurid iguanodontian, a basal member of Hadrosauroidea
  • In 1997 possible Protohadros tracks found, and named the ichnospecies Caririchnium protohadrosaurichnos
  • Habitat was a wooded marsh
  • More fossils from smaller individuals (possibly juveniles or subadults) found at the Arlington Archosaur Site near Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. They’re 30% to 50% smaller than the holotype
  • Many of them had crocodile bite marks
  • Can see a reconstruction of the skull at the Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas

Fun Fact: Dinosaur coprolites have preserved multiple types of parasites.

This episode is brought to you by Columbia University Press. Their book The Story of Evolution in 25 Rocks : The Evidence and the People Who Found It by Donald Prothero is now available in paperback at bit.ly/evolutionin25 use promo code CUP30 to get 30% off the purchase price.

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by Columbia University Press. Their book The Story of Evolution in 25 Rocks : The Evidence and the People Who Found It by Donald Prothero is now available in paperback at bit.ly/evolutionin25 use promo code CUP30 to get 30% off the purchase price.

This episode is also brought to you by Hello Fresh. They deliver fresh, pre-measured ingredients and mouthwatering seasonal recipes right to your door. Go to HelloFresh.com/ikd10 and use code ikd10 for 10 free meals, including free shipping!

Episode 312: The first ever African hadrosaurid

Episode 312 is all about Sonorasaurus, a Late Cretaceous brachiosaurid and the state dinosaur of Arizona.

Please let us know what you think of our show by taking our survey https://bit.ly/ikdsurvey20

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:

  • The first ever hadrosaurid material was found from Africa source
  • A Buriolestes braincase shows that early sauropodomorphs had better vision but worse smell than later sauropods source
  • A new early Psittacosaurus-like dinosaur named Beg tse was found in Mongolia source
  • The South Dakota School of Mines is repairing a T. rex jawbone that was found about 40 years ago source
  • The Cabazon dinosaurs in southern California got a Christmas makeover source
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender’s intro was re-made with all the benders replaced with dinosaurs source
  • A couple posed for their engagement photos in dinosaur costumes, specifically T. rex and Triceratops costumes source

The dinosaur of the day: Sonorasaurus

  • Brachiosaurid that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Arizona, US (Turney Ranch Formation)
  • Estimated to be 49 ft (15 m) long and 27 ft (8.2 m) tall
  • Weighed about 42 tons
  • Herbivorous
  • Had gracile limbs, like other brachiosaurids and some titanosaurs
  • Specimen found was near adult sized
  • Grew slowly and sporadically compared to other sauropods, based on bone histology (compared to Giraffatitan and if similar to Giraffatitan, the specimen was nearly grown)
  • Slow, irregular growth may be because of its harsh environment
  • Lived in a semi-arid environment with seasonal rain and lots of evergreens (harsh environment, limited its growth)
  • Paleoenvironment thought to be coastal, but no marine fossils have been found in the area, and additional analysis found the area to be terrestrial and have fluvial deposits with freshwater invertebrate fossils. Turney Ranch Formation now interpreted to be a “well-drained, semi-arid alluvial plain subject to variable precipitation events” (mostly dry, and flat, formed by deposits of sediments over time via rivers)
  • Dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place included ornithopods (possibly Tenontosaurus), and stegosaurs. Also found a claw referred to Deinonychus and a tooth referred to Acrocanthosaurus
  • May have been eaten by Acrocanthosaurus, based on gouge marks on the bones plus the Acrocanthosaurus tooth found nearby
  • Other animals that lived around the same time and place included fish, turtles, crocodilians
  • Type species is Sonorasaurus thompsoni
  • Genus name means “Sonora lizard” (because of the Sonoran Desert)
  • Described in 1998 by Ronald Paul Ratkevich
  • He considered naming it Chihuahuasaurus, but thought that wouldn’t make sense for such a large animal (Chihuahuan Desert nearby)
  • Found in November 1994 by Richard Thompson, a geology student
  • Found on Thanksgiving weekend while looking for petrified wood
  • Nearly complete skeleton was exposed on a rock wall
  • Richard Thompson told Ronald Ratkevich, from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, about his discovery, and a team excavated from 1995 to 1999
  • David Thayer, curator of geology at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, thought it might be a therizinosaur based on the tail chevron looking like a long hand claw
  • Edwin Colbert was asked to identify the dinosaur, who said based on pictures only it might be a hadrosaur
  • Ratkevich and Thayer went to the AMNH and found it didn’t look like the hadrosaurs there, and thought it was a new species.
  • Name Sonorasaurus was used for a few years informally
  • One of the geologically youngest known brachiosaurids from North America
  • Holotype includes postcranial elements (about 1/3 of a skeleton), also referred a dorsal rib (maybe)
  • Holotype found to have died in an inland environment, but more study needed to establish the full range of its habitats
  • For a while thought to have found a skull, but it turns out to have been a crushed dorsal vertebra
  • In 1995, gastroliths were thought to be in the holotype quarry, but the presence of gastroliths in general in sauropods has been challenged, the gastroliths found may have been too polished and they were scattered around the quarry, and in the quarry are some deposits with pebbles. More evidence needed to determine if what was found were gastroliths
  • Became the state dinosaur of Arizona on April 10, 2018
  • Named the state dinosaur because of a letter from 11-year-old Jax Weldon, who learned about California’s state dinosaur and thought Arizona should have one, so he wrote to Governor Doug Ducey
  • Jax was invited to the State Capitol and presented for 10 minutes to the senate and house, and they passed the legislation soon after

Fun Fact: Although Ajnabia is the first ever hadrosaurid from Africa, there are a couple of hadrosauroid finds from Africa.

Episode 309: Were Triceratops’ horns weapons or ornaments?

Episode 309 is all about Pararhabdodon, a hadrosaurid from Spain that’s a close relative of Tsintaosaurus.

Please let us know what you think of our show by taking our survey https://bit.ly/ikdsurvey20

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:

  • The Dinosaur Systematics Diversity & Ecology session of SVP covered a new African titanosaur, paleopathologies, skin impressions, and much more source
  • A 12-year-old in the Badlands of Alberta, Canada, found a humerus from a juvenile hadrosaur while hiking source
  • An article describes a method that could keep Stan the T. rex available to the public source
  • The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is working on renovations to redesign the area around Dinosphere source
  • Near Golden, Colorado, artist Pat Madison created a family of colorful Triceratops sculptures source
  • The Mace Brown Museum of Natural History in Charleston, SC has new Triceratops and T. rex skull casts source
  • The Glasgow dinosaur in Virginia is getting renovated source
  • The grandson of the artist who created Sinclair’s Dinoland has proposed a restoration of one of the sculptures source
  • A dinosaur park may open in Wallkill, New York source

The dinosaur of the day: Pararhabdodon

  • Hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Spain (Tremp Group)
  • Probably bipedal-quadrupedal
  • Herbivorous
  • Estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) long as an adult
  • Had a tall back (tall neural spines), like other hadrosaurids
  • Casanovas-Cladellas, Santafé-Llopis, and Isidro-Llorens named Pararhabdodon isonense in 1993
  • Genus name means “Near Rhabdodon”
  • Genus name means “near fluted tooth”
  • Originally thought to be rhabdodontid or primitive iguanodontian, found in the Sant Romà d’Abella fossil locality
  • Species name changed/corrected to isonensis in 1997 by Laurent and others
  • Species name refers to Isona
  • First excavated in 1985 at the Sant Romà d’Abella (SRA) locality (in the Pyrenees near Isona, Lleida, Spain)
  • Found postcranial remains (vertebrae) and the maxillae
  • Other material has been referred, but now that material is thought to be from other dinosaurs
  • Described as an ornithopod from Catalonia in 1987 by Casanoveas-Cladellas and others (including cervical vertebra, humerus, fragmentary scapula)
  • Scapula (shoulder bone) had a narrow “neck” but could be the way it was preserved
  • In 1990, more fossils found, and the material was looked at again, and then named in 1993
  • Most material thought to belong to one individual, which became the holotype
  • Cervical, humerus, and ulna designated as the paratype
  • In 1994 more material found (including maxillae, dorsal vertebrae, sacrum, fragmentary ribs, partial ischium)
  • New material, including parts of the skull, let to Casanovas-Cladellas and others reclassifying it as a hadrosaurid
  • Later some debate over whether it was a lambeosaurine. As of 2009 thought to be lambeosaurine and closely related to Tsintaosaurus (dinosaur from Wangshi Group of Shandong, China, named in 1958)
  • Now part of the group Tsintaosaurini (basal lambeosaurines from Eurasia)
  • Poster from 2020 SVP: The osteohistology of Pararhabdodon isonensis sheds light into the life history and paleoecology of this enigmatic European lambeosaurine dinosaur by Jesus Serrano and others. They found a femur, tibia, fibula, & heamal arch (bony arch on the ventral *underside* side of a tail vertebra of a vertebrate) of Pararhabdodon, which confirms it’s a close relative of Tsintaosaurus. Did histology and found it was a sub-adult with a relatively low growth rate. Also found it to be similar in size to other European lambeosaurines
  • Lots of referred material to Pararhabdodon over the years
  • In 1997, Laurent and others referred fossils found in southern France to Pararhabdodon. However, other scientists thought the material was too fragmentary to determine if it was Pararhabdodon. Also found one of the fossils, the humerus, was too distinct and belonged to a different taxon. Other fossils found in France, described in 2003, were originally thought to be Pararhabdodon but in 2013 became part of a new taxon, Canardia garonnensis
  • A maxilla was referred to Pararhabdodon in 2013, but in 2019 later thought to be a close relative instead
  • A hadrosaur bone bed, the Basturs Poble bonebed, found in the Conques Formation in the late 1990s is thought to be Pararhabdodon, but the fossils don’t have tsintaosaurin characteristics and there’s not enough material to compare to Pararhabdodon, so now may be indeterminate lambeosaur fossils. Bonebed included juveniles and adults, with more juveniles than adults
  • In 2006, Albert Prieto-Márquez and others named a new dinosaur, Koutalisaurus kohlerorum (genus name means “spoon lizard”), based on a dentary found near the original Pararhabdodon locality. However, no teeth preserved though there are 35 tooth positions and it was found to be unique compared to other hadrosaur dentaries, but the fossils are fragmentary so they said it was possible if more fossils are found it could be synonymized with Pararhabdodon
  • In 2009, Prieto-Márquez and Jonathan Wagner analyzed and compared Pararhabdodon, Koutalisaurus, and Tsintaosaurus. Found that what was thought to distinguish Koutalisaurus (edentulous slope, lacking teeth) was also in Tsintaosaurus. However, they lived too far apart from each other to be thought to be synonymous. Could have said Koutalisaurus was a nomen dubium, but unless another dinosaur that looked the same was found in the area, it’s possible Koutalisaurus really was unique for its area. So they kept it distinct and as a relative of Tsintaosaurus. However, they also found some same traits in Pararhabdodon and Tsintaosaurus. Since both Pararhabdodon and Koutalisaurus had similarities to Tsintaosaurus, they decided to treat Pararhabdodon and Koutalisaurus as one
  • In 2013, Prieto-Márquez and others looked again at the Koutalisaurus dentary. Since then more preparation had been down on the fossil, and the study found that the uniqueness of that dentary was very exaggerated from it was first prepared. The same goes for Tsintaosaurus. So now the dentary is not distinguishable from multiple lambeosaurines, and not particularly connected to Tsintaosaurus. So it’s now considered to be an indeterminate lambeosaurine dentary.

Fun Fact: T. rex had a very small partial third finger.

Sponsors:

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Episode 260: T. rex tooth replacement & a new Australian megaraptorid

Get our new book 50 Dinosaur Tales here: http://bit.ly/50dinosaurtales

Episode 260 is all about Leptoceratops, A small late cretaceous ceratopsian that may have switched between a two and four-legged stance.

Interview with Matthew Mossbrucker, the director and chief curator at the Morrison Natural History Museum in Colorado where he studies the type section of the Morrison Formation. He’s also on the board of the Paleon Museum where he leads digs with the public. Check out his work at the Morrison’s Facebook page.

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 Megarptorid was found in Australia, it looks a lot like Australovenator, but it might be too old source
  • Another Alaskan tracksite, the Chignik Formation, recovers a huge number of hadrosaurids at the beach source
  • A new study looked at Tristan the T.rex’s tooth replacement and found an alternating replacement pattern source
  • Three baby Protoceratops at Southern Illinois Laboratory have been given new nicknames source

The dinosaur of the day: Leptoceratops

  • Ceratopsian that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Western North America (Alberta, Canada and Wyoming, US)
  • Estimated to be about 6.6 ft (2 m) long and weigh 150-441 lb (68 to 200 kg)
  • Both quadrupedal and bipedal (could probably stand and run on two legs, and could walk on four legs, though couldn’t pronate hands)
  • A 2007 study found Leptoceratops kept its hands in a “clapping” pose
  • Had short, downward pointing horns near the cheeks
  • Had a frill
  • Had a leaf shaped tail
  • Herbivorous
  • Had short, deep jaws, and a powerful bite
  • Could shear and crush plant matter
  • Probably able to chew tough vegetation
  • Probably was a low browser (ferns and conifers)
  • One study in 2016 by Frank Varriale (pubilshed in PeerJ) found the dental microwear on Leptoceratops teeth was similar to some rodents, and Leptoceratops is “the first evidence of complex, mammal-like chewing in a ceratopsian dinosaur”
  • Type species is Leptoceratops gracilis
  • Genus name means “little horned face”
  • Found in 1910 by Barnum Brown in the Red Deer Valley in Alberta, Canada (no skull found at first, but later more fossils found by C. M. Sternberg in 1947, and more fossils found in the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming in 1978, and that one is nicknamed “Lance”)
  • Brown found two skeletons but they were on a cattle pathway, and the cows trampled the exposed fossils
  • Brown described Leptoceratops in 1914
  • Some fossils found in Montana in 1942 were called Leptoceratops cerorhynchos, but later renamed to Montanoceratops
  • In 2003, a lower arm bone (single ulna) was found in Australia and Patricia and Thomas Rich found it looked similar to Leptoceratops, so they named it the ceratopsian Serendipaceratops. Some scientists think not enough is known about it, but if it is related to Leptoceratops, it could change what we know about ceratopsian evolution (no other ceratopsians found in Australia)
  • Can see Leptoceratops at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa

Fun Fact: Dinosaurs have been in space at least twice (not including any bits that may have been launched out of the atmosphere during the Chicxulub impact).

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Tuojiangosaurus (Episode 243)

Episode 243 is all about Tuojiangosaurus, a dinosaur that resembles Stegosaurus with thinner plates.

We also interview Jen Bauer, a postdoctoral associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History, with a focus on the myFOSSIL project and the Thompson Institute for Earth Systems. She is also the co-creator, along with Adriane Lam, of Time Scavengers

Join at the Tyrannosaurus level by August 21, 2019 to get a signed copy of our new book  https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino

If you’d like to join our 50 Dinosaur Tales launch team fill out our form at bit.ly/dinosaurbookteam by August 5, 2019

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:

  • Aquilarhinus, the new hadrosaur from Texas with a shovel bill and an eagle nose source
  • A large group of opalized dinosaur fossils were found in Lightning Ridge, Australia source
  • The lawsuit over the dueling dinosaurs is now at the Montana Supreme Court source

The dinosaur of the day: Tuojiangosaurus

  • Stegosaurid that lived in the Late Jurassic, in what is now Sichuan Province, China (Upper Shaximiao Formation)
  • About 23 ft (7 m) long, and about 2.8 tonnes (Gregory Paul estimated 2.8 tonnes for a specimen about 21 ft (6.5 m) long)
  • Described in 1977 by Dong Zhiming and others, but the description was mostly of traits that other stegosaurs had
  • Peter Galton wrote about an autapomorphy in 1990 (pairs of spines at the base of the tail, the thagomizer, had bony skirts that ran from the front to the sides)
  • Had two spikes that pointed out from the end of the tail (thagomizer), though Dong thought there may have been four spikes. Gregory Paul described them as a “pin-cushion array” with two vertical pairs of spikes and another pair of spikes that pointed behind
  • Had rows of plates on the spine, the tallest ones around the hip area
  • Plates near the neck and the front of the body were rounded, plates near the back were more pointy and triangular
  • The plates were shaped in a way that looked like modified spikes
  • Dong estimated 17 pairs of plates and spikes
  • Had a narrow, low head
  • Had a bulky body
  • Had short limbs, especially the forelimbs
  • Ate ground vegetation and probably kept its head close to the ground (had teeth better for soft vegetation)
  • Fossils were found in 1974, during construction of a dam in Zigong, Sichuan
  • Type species is Tuojiangosaurus multispinus
  • Name means “Tuo River Lizard”
  • Species name means “many spines”
  • Found two specimens initially (more specimens have since been referred to Tuojiangosaurus, including juveniles)
  • Holotype is mostly complete, but missing parts of the skull, lower jaws, tail, and limbs (when it was described, it was the most complete stegosaur skeleton found in Asia)
  • Sister taxa to Stegosaurus
  • Can see Tuojiangosaurus mount at the Municipal Museum of Chongqing, in China, and another mount at the Beijing Museum of Natural History (fighting a Yangchuanosaurus)
  • Can also see a Tuojiangosaurus cast at the Natural History Museum in London

Fun Fact: There is a formation of cretaceous rock larger than Montana in central Africa that is completely unexplored.

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