The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 168 is all about Glacialisaurus, a sauropodomorph from Antarctica whose name means “icy lizard.”

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Scientists found a new way to date dinosaur bones
• The Chicxulub impact may have caused huge magma outflow
• Dinosaur and other animal footprints were found near NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland
• A new, not yet described hadrosaur, is being studied at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
• Three ceratopsians from the Cretaceous were found in Sasayam, Hyogo Prefecture, in Japan
• The Virginia Museum of Natural History got a grant that will allow the museum to digitally catalogue their fossil collection
• In Arizona, 11-year-old Jax Weldon is pushing to get a state dinosaur for his home state
• In Idaho, paleontologist Dr. L.J. Krumenacker is pushing to name Oryctodromeus as the official state dinosaur
• The second trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom came out, and there’s a Dinosaur Protection Group website
• In honor of the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park, Chronicle Collectibles is selling a sick Triceratops collectible
• In Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, a new theme park attraction called Jurassic Island is coming soon, and it uses augmented reality
• Mazoo Toys sells unique dinosaur pine wood collectibles
• Makezine published a DIY project where you can create a wooden Stegosaurus that holds memory cards

The dinosaur of the day: Glacialisaurus

• • Massospondylid sauropodomorph that lived in the Jurassic in what is now Antarctica
  • Fossils were found in the 1990s by Dr. William R. Hammer of Augustana College and a team
  • Found in the lower part of the Hanson Formation, in Mount Kirkpatrick
  • Fossils were found at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet (~4,100 meters)
  • Had to remove the bones from ice and rock, using jackhammers, rock saws, and chisels
  • Known from a partial foot and referred material of a left femur
  • Described in 2007 by Nathan Smith and Diego Pol
  • Type species is Glacialisaurus hammeri
  • Name means “icy lizard” or “frozen lizard”, and refers to the Beardmore Glacier region in the Central Transantarctic Mountains, where the fossils were found
  • Species name is in honor of William Hammer
  • First sauropodomorph found in Antarctica
  • Glacialisaurus shows how early sauropods/sauropodomorphs were distributed (China, South Africa, South America, North America, Antarctica, probably due to connections between continents at the time)
  • Other sauropod fossils have been found in the same formation, which shows that early sauropods and sauropodomorphs co-existed together for a while
  • Herbivorous
  • Estimated to be 20-25 ft long (6-8 m) and weigh 4-6 tons
  • Predators at the time include Cryolophosaurus
  • Its foot is similar to Lufengosaurus (lived in the Early Jurassic in China), which may have been a close relative

Fun Fact:

Birds evolved from dinosaurs, but birds were already established before the K-Pg Mass Extinction.

This episode was brought to you by:

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.

And by the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which is located in southern Alberta, Canada. Right now they are exhibiting their free-to-attend Winter speaker series (also on YouTube). More information can be found at tyrrellmuseum.com.