Episode 150 is all about Antetonitrus, a sauropodomorph whose name means “Before the thunder,” because it lived before Brontosaurus.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- Oviraptor Heyuannia laid blue-green eggs
- New titanosaur from Tanzania named Shingopana songwensis—Swahili for Wide Neck from Songwe
- Paleontologist Jordan Mallon has lifted out his Chasmosaurus skull from the badlands with a helicopter
- In addition to California, both Arkansas and Connecticut also named state dinosaurs in 2017
- The University of Kansas museum has a new T. rex skeleton
- The Western Australian Museum in Perth, Australia has a new exhibit called Dinosaur Discovery: Lost Creatures of the Cretaceous
- The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University also has a new exhibit, called Tiny titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies
- Extreme Dinosaurs: The Exhibition, opens October 12 in Orlando, Florida
- In Deadwood, South Dakota, Deadwood History Inc. is hosting a Dinosaur Workshop
- Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont, Texas, will have a Dinosaur Day on October 28
- The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hosting a Homeschool Day on November 8
- The BBC is making a film by Chris Packham which will try to demystify T. rex. Cleverly called called T. rex
- Robert Legere, a Canadian photographer, has been taking photos of British Columbia with dinosaur models for the past year
- If you have Hulu, you can now stream the 90’s TV show Dinosaurs.
The dinosaur of the day: Antetonitrus
- Sauropodiforme that lived in the Triassic/Jurassic (boundary) in what is now South Africa (Elliot Formation)
- Named in 2003 by Adam Yates (co-authored by James Kitching)
- Type species (and only species) is Antetonitrus ingenipes
- Name means “Before the thunder”, which refers to it existing before Brontosaurus and other known sauropods
- Species name means “massive foot”
- Fossils were found in 1981 by Kitching, and they were stored at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- They were originally labeled as Euskelosaurus, until Yates suggested they were a separate taxon
- The holotype consists of vertebrae and bones from the forelimb and hind limb
- Five limb bones from a smaller specimen were also referred to Antetonitrus
- Holotype was about 26-33 ft (8-10 m) long, but the neural arches of the vertebrae were not fused with the centra, so it may not have been fully grown
- Had a long neck
- Skull is not known
- Mostly quadrupedal herbivore, but had primitive adaptations to use forelimbs for grasping, in addition to supporting its weight
- Had forelimbs that were longer than its hindlimbs
- The first digit of its hand (the “thumb” or pollex”) were still flexible and capable of grasping (later sauropods had large, thick wrist bones, and their hands were locked in a way to support its weight full time)
- Antetonitrus did have broader, thicker wrist bones, so it shows an adaptation
- Feet show the beginning of developing to support great weight
- Also the first toe on its foot had a claw, though it wasn’t sickle shaped like in later sauropods
- Could be a transitional link between bipedal sauropodomorphs and quadrupedal sauropods
- Not necessarily a direct ancestor to sauropods however. Scientists have classified it as a sauropodiforme (an animal that has features related to the origin of sauropods)
- Closely resembles Blikanasaurus and Lessemsaurus (but both of those are poorly known)
Fun Fact:
Back in 2007 the lead author on the crustaceans-in-poo article, Karen Chin, also reported on dinosaurs eating wood. That time while studying the Two Medicine formation and coprolite believed to be from Maiasaura.
- ~74–80MYA formation
- Identified as coprolite by dung beetle burrows
- Cited lack of twigs as intentionally eating wood
- Not accidental while eating leaves
- Conifer wood accounted for 13%–85% of each coprolite
- This wood was also decaying (fungus), possibly meaning that the fungus broke down the wood into something bioavailable
- Even hadrosaurs with their grinding teeth and massive stomachs couldn’t get much nutritional value from wood
- Cited this as a potentially useful resource given the overall lack of grasses and other angiosperms that modern herbivores prefer
