Episode 365 is all about Demandasaurus, A European sauropod that was a close relative of Nigersaurus.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- We discuss the Non-Avian Theropod, Dinosaur Systematics, Permo-Triassic Ecosystems, & Preparators sessions from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting source
- Sauropods extremely rapid tooth replacement rates may have given them an advantage to eating certain plants source
- In Huesca, Spain, 30 titanosaur eggs have been found in a two-ton rock source
- In Davinópolis, Brazil, paleontologists have found a “dinosaur cemetery” source
- In Colorado, US, flooding earlier this year on the Comanche National Grassland covered dinosaur tracks in six inches of mud source
- A recent letter written by four scientists suggests that returning Ubirajara is a “moral and legal imperative” source
- When the Yale Peabody Museum reopens in early 2024, it will be free forever to visitors source
- The streaming service Peacock is making a documentary on the rise and fall of Barney the dinosaur source
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous season 4 comes out Dec 3, and there’s a new trailer out source
The dinosaur of the day: Demandasaurus
- Rebbachisaurid sauropod that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Burgos, Spain (Castrillo de la Reina Formation)
- Rebbachisaurids are part of the family Diplodocidae but considered to be more basal than Diplodocus
- Looks like other sauropods, with a large body, columnar legs, long tail, and long, thick neck
- Had simple neural spines
- Medium-sized
- Estimated to be 33 to 39 ft (10 to 12 m) long
- Herbivorous
- Had pencil-type, elongated, slender teeth that were mostly straight with a slight curve
- Named by Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor and others in 2011
- Type and only species is Demandasaurus darwini
- Genus name means “Demanda lizard”
- Genus name refers to the Sierra de la Demanda, the mountain chain where the type specimen was found
- Species name is in honor of Charles Darwin
- Found an incomplete but associate skeleton (cranial and post-cranial fossils)
- Fossils found in the “Tenadas de los Vallejos II” quarry, near the town of Salas de los Infantes
- Quarry found in 1999 during prospection work
- Fossils excavated in 2002 to 2004, and found about 810 skeletal elements, most of them from a single rebbachisaurid individual
- Fossils were disarticulated and close to each other
- Also found fossils from a small ornithopod, two spinosaurids, and a crocodile tooth
- Holotype of Demandasaurus includes premaxillae, left dentary, six teeth, vertebrae, ribs, ischia, left femur
- Has 9 autapomorphies in the teeth and vertebrae (includes tooth ornamentation, pneumatic cavities)
- Sister group of Nigersaurus
- Premaxillae is taller than it is wide (subrectangular), which is similar to Nigersaurus
- Demandasaurus helps show that dinosaurs sometimes in the Early Cretaceous moved between Laurasia and Gondwana
- Rebbachisaurids have been found on both continents, which may mean there was a land connection at the end of the Early Cretaceous
- First based on the description of the rebbachisaurid Histriasaurus in 1999, found on the Istrian peninsula (shared by Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy)
- McKenna in 1973 said this was an example of dispersal through “Noah’s Ark”
- Part of Gondwana (north Africa) split off and collided with the south of Laurasia (Europe) and became part of Laurasia (on the Apulian Plate)
- This migration by the Apulian Plate may have been the starting point for the “Apulian Route” that happened at the end of the Cretaceous but may have also been used in the Early Cretaceous
- May not have been a land corridor, but the islands on the route may have been close enough that some animals could move between them (like Demandasaurus or a close ancestor of Demandasaurus)
Fun Fact: New Supersaurus material shows that it is the longest known dinosaur in the world at approximately 39–42m (128–138ft) long.
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