Episode 58 is all about Saurophaganax, a meat-eating dinosaur excavated during the Great Depression under the Works Progress Administration.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Saurophaganax
- Name means “lizard eater”
- John Willis Stovall found large theropod bones in 1931 and 1932 in Oklahoma. In 1942 Stovall named them Saurophagus maximus (“eater of saurians”) in an article, but the article did not have a description, so the name is nomen nudum. Stovall provided a description in 1950, but the name Saurophagus had already been used in 1831 (William Swainson named a tyrant-flycatcher that did eat lizards)
- Flycatchers are birds
- Stovall named Saurophagus in an article by Grace Ernistine Ray
- Pard Collins and Truman Tucker, cattleman, found the bones in Oklahoma, and told J. Stovall about their discovery. Stovall applied the Works Progress Administration, which gave work to unskilled laborers during the Great Depression
- They excavated May 1935 to 1938. The workers had to live in the same county as the work they were doing, but Cimarron County, OK did not have many paleontologists or fossil preparators, so it was mostly up to local ranchers and farmhands. Many bones accidentally destroyed, and not much field data was kept. Also laborers didn’t always know what was bone and what was rock. So it was good to give people work, but not great when it came to excavating the dinosaur
- Grace Ray visited the site when Stovall found the Saurophagus maximus bones (which is why it hadn’t yet been scientifically named)
- No real name until 1995, due to Saurophagus being the name of a bird and not all scientists agreeing that naming the dinosaur in an article was enough (since there was no scientific description)
- From the article: “Despite his strength and power and his technique in terrorizing the enemy, Saurophagus would never have been able to pass the medical test of a military draft board, neither would Mrs. Saurophagus have qualified as a “perfect 36.” They were hopelessly overweight, and it is improbable that any amount of dieting would have remedied the situation. Overactive glands may account for their stupendous size, as in the case of other dinosaurs.”
- In 1987 a lectotype (bone used to identify remains) was established and based on a tibia
- Daniel Chure did not treat the name change as renaming, instead of using the 1987 lectotype he used a vertebra as a holotype
- Daniel Chure named the new genus in 1995, adding the “anax” Greek suffix, which means “ruler” to the Saurophagus name. He also named a different specimen as the type specimen (a neural arch, not meant to be a new type of the old genus but a holotype different from Saurophagus. So, Saurophaganax is not a renaming of Saurophagus (though Saurophagus material has mostly been referred to as Saurophaganax maximus, including disarticulated bones of at least 4 individuals)
- Some scientists consider it a species of Allosaurus (Allosaurus maximus)
- Soon after, a new theory that Saurophaganax was actually a large species of Allosaurus came up (based on all the known Saurophaganax bones except for vertebrae being similar to previously discovered Allosaurus bones)
- Size has been estimated to be 34 to 43 ft (10.5 to 13 m) long, and weigh around 3 tons
- Research shows Allosaurus died young, before being full grown, so being Saurophaganax size would be rare
- Not clear if the vertebrae are the only differences between Saurophaganax and Allosaurus
- Saurophaganax was large for an allosaurid (bigger than Torvosaurus and Allosaurus), but a rarer find, in the Morrison Formation (especially compared to Allosaurus), so not much known about its behavior
- Not many fossils have been found, which supports the theory, but could mean we just haven’t found more yet (maybe they died in ways not conducive to fossilization)
- May have been a top predator because of large size, but would not have been as numerous as smaller dinosaurs (based on not having enough food to sustain a large population)
- Also, larger bodies make it less likely to see complete specimens (harder to be buried and protected from scavengers)
- To help distinguish Saurophaganax from Allosaurus, would be good to find a juvenile Saurophaganax
- A partial skeleton has been found in New Mexico (which may help clear up if Saurophaganax is its own genus or a species of Allosaurus)
- Had long sharp teeth and strong neck
- Because of its size, may have been slow and more likely to scavenge than hunt (may have waited for other theropods to take down prey, and then swoop in to take the meat, since the theropods wouldn’t be big enough to challenge Saurophaganax)
- Morrison Formation was semiarid with distinct wet and dry seasons, with lakes and floodplains. The Morrison Formation was the center of the Bone Wars between Marsh and Cope in 1877
- Other dinosaurs in the area included Barosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, potential prey such as Camptosaurus, Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus, Othnielosaurus
- Predators included Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus, Stokesosaurus, Ornitholestes, Allosaurus (70-75% of theropods in the area)
- Can see a Saurophaganax skeleton in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
- Allosaurus seems to be the closest relative, so missing Saurophagnax elements are based on Allosaurus parts in reconstructions (scaled up)
- Oklahoma’s state fossil is Saurophaganax
- Saurophaganax is an allosaurid
- Allosaurid from the Morrison Formation
- Allosauridae is a family of medium to large carnivorous theropods
- Includes Saurophaganax, Allosaurus, and Epanterias (which has been reassigned as an Allosaurus species)
- Charles Marsh named the family in 1878
- They were successful hunters
- Unclear how many genera in the family. Many carnosaurs are somewhat related to Allosaurus
- Fun Fact: The impact at Chicxulub had an estimated energy equivalent to 240,000 gigatons of TNT which is on the order of 10 billion times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during WWII
