The Big Dinosaur Podcast

In our 151st episode, we got to chat with Keegan Kuhn, owner of TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and exhibits. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs.

Episode 151 is also about Deltadromeus, a theropod whose name means “delta runner.”

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Dinosaur tracks were found nearly 2 miles above sea level in the Alps. The tracks were originally formed under water
• A new late-middle Jurassic dinosaur Serikornis sungei was found in China with leg feathers, but probably couldn’t fly
• A new trackway from China contains avian theropods, non-avian theropods, and sauropods
• Modern birds have brains similar to juvenile non-avian dinosaurs and embryonic alligators
• More than 20 fossils of a sauropod have been found in Thailand, it may be the biggest dinosaur found in Thailand
• Paleontologist Derek Larson outlined the steps of discovering and describing a fossil on Daily Herald Tribune
• The exhibit, Ultimate Dinosaur, from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, recently opened at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
• October is International Dinosaur Month at Wiley, they have posted paleontology content free to read until the end of the month
• High Speed Hangover podcast featured a selection of Metal dinosaur bands
• The first in-game footage of Jurassic World Evolution has been released
• More Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom merchandise information has been released, it appears to be school supplies
• This year’s New York’s Comic Con featured two versions of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
• Build-a-bear has released a set of dinosaur plushies which can be customized in their stores
• A man in a T. rex costume in Hawaii rode a giant inflatable flamingo raft

The dinosaur of the day: Deltadromeus

• Carnivorous theropod that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Northern Africa
• Name means “delta runner”
• Type species is Deltadromeus agilis
• Had long, slender hindlimbs for its size (probably a fast runner)
• Named in 1996 by Paul Sereno
• Gabrielle Lyon found Deltadromeus in 1995 while excavating Cretaceous sediments
• Paul Sereno and Gabrielle Lyon got married in 1996
• May be a junior synonym to Bahariasaurus
• Bahariasaurus was named in 1934, but the type specimen was destroyed in WWII, so it’s not possible to compare with Deltadromeus
• Ernst Stromer considered a few more specimens to be the same as Bahariasaurus, but then Paul Sereno referred them to Deltadromeus in 1996. However, this has been questioned because they came from different localities in the Bahariya Formation and have some differences from the Deltadromeus
• Holotype was fairly complete, and was about 26 ft (8 m) long
• No skulls have been found for Deltadromeus or Bahariasaurus
• Some teeth have been labeled as Deltadromeus but no skull has been found so it’s not clear if they are actually Deltadromeus
• May have weighed up to 2 metric tons
• Other theropods found in the same formation as Deltadromeus include Carcharodontosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Bahariasaurus
• Being fast may have helped it stay out of the way of these other large carnivores
• Thought to be a ceratosaurian, but an analysis of Aoniraptor (which may be synonymous with Gualicho) has found that Deltadromeus and Bahariasaurus may be from a poorly known clade of megaraptoran tyrannosauroids different from Megaraptoridae

Fun Fact:

Coprolite from herbivores is harder to find than coprolite from carnivores

According to Paul Barrett, that’s because the there’s calcium in carnivore poop. Specifically, calcium from bones that they ate.

On the other hand, herbivore poop is basically the beginning of a compost pile (partially decomposed plants).

This could explain why the herbivore coprolite with crustacean remains was preserved so well.