In our 42nd episode of I Know Dino, we had the pleasure of speaking with Brad Jost, host of the Jurassic Park Podcast, a show that covers news, sound bites, polls, and more on the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies. Follow Jurassic Park Podcast on Twitter @JurassicParkPod.
We also talk about Styracosaurus, a fierce looking dinosaur known for its spikes.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Styracosaurus, whose name means “spiked lizard”
- Name comes from the ancient Greek word styrax, the steel spike at the end of a spear
- Lived in the Cretaceous
- Lawrence Lambe named Styracosaurus in 1913
- First fossils found in Alberta, Canada by C.M. Sternberg; Royal Ontario Museum crew revisisted the quarry in 1935 and found most of the skeleton and the missing lower jaws
- One valid species, Styracosaurus albertensis
- Lots of debate over the validity of genera and species.
- Barnum Brown and his team from the American Museum of Natural History in NY found a nearly complete skeleton with a partial skull in 1915, also in Alberta’s Dinosaur Park Formation. At first they thought it was a new species, and they named it Styracosaurus parksi, after William Parks, because of differences in cheekbone, and smaller tail vertebrae and different frill shape, but most of the skull was reconstructed with plaster and now it’s considered another specimen of Styracosaurus albertensis
- Early name of S. parksi was S. borealis
- In 2006, Darren Tanke from the Royal Tyrrell Museum went back to the site where S. parksi was found and collected more bones to test whether it is actually the same species of S. albertensis
- S. ovatus was described by Charles Gilmore in 1930, based on bones found in the Two Medicine Formation in Montana. It’s a partial skeleton, but one pair of its frill spikes converges towards the midline, instead of away as seen in S. albertensis, and the spikes were shorter.
- In 2010 Ryan, Holmes and Russell said S. ovatus was a distinct species, and McDonald and Horner put it in its own genus, Rubeosaurus
- Peter Dodson said in 1996 that Centrosaurus, Styracosaurus and Monoclonius were their own genera and Styracosaurus was more like Centrosaurus than either were like Monoclonius. He also said Monoclonius nasicornis may have been a female Styracosaurus instead, but most other researchers do not accept this
- Other species that used to be Styracosaurus but are in other genera include S. spehnocerus (named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1890 and is now a species of Monoclonius), S. makeli named informally by Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas in 1990, but is now Einiosaurus
- Styracosaurus was about 18 feet (5 m) long, 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, and weighed about 3 tons.
- Lived around tyrannosaurs, ankylosaurs, and Corythosaurus
- Distinct, fierce looking appearance (may be almost as famous as Triceratops)
- Herbivore, with 4-6 horns on its neck frill, a smaller horn on each cheek, and a horn on its nose (up to 2 ft or 60 cm long and 6 in or 15 cm wide); lots of debate over what they used the horns for
- Body was similar to a rhinoceros, with powerful shoulders, short tail
- Had short legs, bulky body, short tail
- May have charged like a rhino for defense
- May have run up to 20 mph or 32 kph, based on leg length and body mass, as well as trackways
- Gregory Paul and Per Christiansen, from the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen, said Styracosaurus and other large ceratopsians may have run faster than an elephant, based on some ceratopsian trackways that show it did not walk with a sprawl
- Rear legs were longer than front legs
- Debate over how it stood. Computer models show somewhere in between sprawling and having legs directly under it
- May have stood in a crouched position
- Large skull with large nostril, nose horn, a neck frill with four to six large spikes or horns (the longest one similar in size to the nose horn)
- Six large horns from the upper part of the neck frill, two point up and curve to the sides, other pairs point directly to sides
- One of the most complete Styracosaurus skulls had a bent frill (crushed during fossilization), and made it look like the frill went downward and came our directly behind its skull (first paintings and sketchings portray this, from 1910s)
- Horn is about 19.7 in or 57 cm long in the type specimen, but it’s only a partial horn. Based on horns of other Styracosaurus and Centrosaurus, paleontologists think the horn may have had a rounded point
- Nose horn may have been half the length than previously thought (20 in), and blunt tipped
- Individual Styracosaurus had slightly different looking skulls. they all had the 4 frill spikes and large nasal horn, but some had small hook-like projections and knobs on their frills, similar to Centrosaurus. Some had an extra pair of long frill spikes or horns. Subadults had smaller brow horns than adults
- In one specimen, the base of the smallest frill spike is partially overlapped by the next spike (the frill may have broken at some point and was shortened by 2 in or 6 cm)
- Scientists used to think the frills and horns were used in defense, and holes and damage on skulls are seen as from combat. But a 2006 study found no evidence of this, because there’s no evidence of infection or healing, and instead the damage may have been caused by non-pathological bone resorption or unknown bone diseases
- But a more recent study found that skull lesions in Triceratops and Centrosaurus (very similar to Styracosaurus) were consistent with using horns to fight and frill as a protection, and damages found in the 2006 study were too localized to be caused by bone disease
- Although a ceratopsian, probably fought differently from Triceratops. A team in 2009 compared skulls of Centrosaurus and Triceratops. Scars on Triceratops skulls were consistent with horns locking but rare in Centrosaurus (probably because they and Styracosaurus did not have large horns above its eyes for protection)
- Dr. Andrew Farke, who was part of the study, said maybe they flank-butted instead or didn’t use horns for fighting
- Horns probably not used for defense, since horn and frill shapes often changing in ceratopsian genera, and some became smaller, which wouldn’t protect against tyrannosaurs (if used for protection, would have stabilized as seen in ankylosaurs)
- R.S. Lull suggested that ceratopsians used their frills as anchor points for their jaw muscles; the spikes in Styracosaurus would also have made it look more formidable
- Richard Swann Lull and John McLoughlin both said, independently, the frills were anchors for large jaw muscles (frill buriend in flesh), but most paleontologists think it was for display
- Dodson said in 1996 that the frills were muscle attachments, but did not think they filled in the fenestrae (C.A. Forster found no evidence of large muscle attachments on frill bones)
- Frills may have also regulated body temperature (like large elephant ears)
- Primary function though may have been display, to attract mates. Davitashvili proposed this in 1961. Each species of horned dinosaurs has different adornments, and may have been used for social behavior or for mating (similar to what modern species do)
- May have flushed blood into frills for color displays
- Ceratopsians had underdeveloped horns as hatchlings, and the horn signaled maturity, so horns may have helped them identify their own species (and make it easy for them to court each other)
- Probably ate low growing vegetation, though may have been able to knock down taller plants
- May have eaten palms and cycads or ferns, or may have knocked down angiosperm trees and sheared off leaves
- Jaws had a deep, narrow beak, easy to grasp and pluck (not easy to bite)
- Had cheek teeth arranged as dental batteries and a beak, so could probably slice up plants
- Teeth sliced, but did not grind (like hadrosaurids)
- Had dental batteries, and continually replaced teeth
- Bonebeds show they may have lived in herds
- Bonebed of Styracosaurus found in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, and is associated with multiple river deposits. But this may have happened due to animals hanging around a waterhole during a drought (may have been a seasonal, semiarid environment)
- If Styracosaurus clustered together, they could have protected themselves from tyrannosaur attack (not good one on one, horns on one not enough)
- Styracosaurus is in the western moview The Valley of Gwangi in 1969. Gwangi (based on T-rex and Allosaurus) and a horseman takes down an angry Styracosaurus, (dinosaurs were stop-motion)
- There was an action sequence with Styracosaurus in the 1933 King Kong movie but it was cut, but it made it in the sequel Son of Kong, also came out in 1933
- Styracosaurus appears in a few Land Before Times movies, including Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire (called Far Walkers, walked in a herd), also one seen with an Ouranosaurus in the beginning of The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration and The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses, as well as some episodes of the TV series
- Styracosaurus is a featured dinosaur in the games Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs (expansion) and Dino Danger Pack, an expansion for Zoo Tycoon 2
- Styracosaurus was also in Disney’s Dinosaur, as Eema who befriended Aladar (Eema had a pet Ankylosaurus named Uri); the original story had the main protagonist as Styracosaurus
- Styracosaurus is also in the dinosaur ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Also in 1999 fighting genre game Warpath: Jurassic Park, the 2002 Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs expansion, the 2006 Zoo Tycoon 2: Dino Danger Pack and the 2003 popular theme park management video game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
- http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/time/puppets/styracosaurus.html (Cut out puppet)
- Part of the suborder Marginocephalia
- Also a ceratopsian
- Ceratopsidae are quadrupedal herbivores that lived in the Cretaceous, mostly in North America (some in Asia)
- They have beaks, teeth in the back of their jaw, and horns and frills
- Horns and frills probably used for display
- May have lived in herds
- Predators were tyrannosaurids
- Other ceratopsians include Psittacosaurus, Leptoceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Montanoceratops, Chasmosaurus, Centrosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops
- Ceratopsians may have originated in Asia during the Jurassic, based on Yinlong, first known Jurassic ceratopsian, and true horned ceratopsians were in the late Cretaceous in North America
- Two subfamilies, Chasmosaurinae and Centrosaurinae that we go into much more detail in in episode 28, but the difference can be summarized as: Chasmosaurinae (long frills and large brow horns) and Centrosaurinae (nasal horners, shorter frills, and spines on the back of frill)
- Styracosaurus is part of the subfamily Centrosaurinae
- Centrosaurinae did not have large horns above eyes, but had large nose horns and short decorative frills
- Other Centrosaurinae include Pachyrhinosaurus, Avaceratops, Einiosaurus, Albertaceratops, and Achelousaurus
- Styracosaurus may have replaced Centrosaurus, based on bonebed deposits that show they lived in the same area, but at different times
- Styracosaurus albertensis may have descended from Centrosaurus and then evolved into Rubeosaurus ovatus (the way the horns were arranged changed slightly over time); but this lineage may not be that simple, since pachyrinosaur-like species have been in the same time and place as Styracosaurus albertensis
- Fun fact: Ankylosaurus has a very low Encephalization Quotient of about 0.5 (like a mouse), which is lower than almost all the other dinosaurs, with the exception of Sauropods around 0.2 (similar to an armadillo)
For those who may prefer reading, see below for the full transcript of our talk with Brad Jost:
