Episode 335 is all about Leinkupal, the last known and possibly smallest diplodocid.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- The oldest known titanosaur, Ninjatitan, was described from Patagonia source
- More details of the upcoming Utahraptor State Park have been announced source
- About 4,000 tons of the Jurassic Coast in the UK collapsed source
- The Megalosaurus “Meg” at Crystal Palace Park has a new 3D printed jaw and teeth source
- The new headquarters for Great Minds got a full scale Stan the T. rex replica source
- There is a new traveling exhibit in Japan which compares Pokémon to the fossils that inspired them source
- Dino Parc in Romania has a new sculpture, an 11 m tall Diplodocus source
- English Oak Park in Doraville, Georgia, has a new T. rex statue source
- Erie Dinosaur Park in Kansas has its final three dinosaur sculptures source
- In May, Artisan Forge Studios will have a “Scraposaur” metal dinosaur collection in Eau Claire, Wisconsin source
- A dinosaur diorama in Los Angeles has brought cheer to the neighborhood during the pandemic source
- Jurassic World: The Exhibition will be in Dallas, Texas starting on June 18 source
The dinosaur of the day: Leinkupal
- Diplodocinae sauropod that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Neuquén Province, Argentina (Bajada Colorada Formation)
- Like all diplodocids, had a long neck and whip-like tail, and hindlimbs that were longer than forelimbs
- Herbivorous
- Estimated to be 30 ft (9 m) long
- Weight is unknown, but bones were delicate and light and most of its body was neck and tail, so probably not that heavy (possibly weighed about the same as an elephant)
- In some of the news articles about it, referred to as “the littlest giant” (possibly the smallest diplodocid)
- Shape of the vertebrae was distinct from other diplodocid vertebrae (including having bony projections off each side of the vertebrae, a.k.a. transverse processes)
- Some neural spines bifurcated
- Had a broad, muscular tail, which was probably strong and it probably had a lot of control over its tail
- Type and only species is Leinkupal laticauda
- Fossils were found between 2010 and 2012
- Fossils were damaged by erosion and not much to see, but the team didn’t find any other fossils, so they dug out Leinkupal vertebrae, then saw it was a new dinosaur
- Fossils were disarticulated and found mixed up with dicraeosaur fossils
- Named and described in 2014 by Pablo Gallina and others
- Genus name means “vanishing family” in Mapudungun
- Refers to the dinosaur being the youngest known species of Diplodocidae
- Genus name refers to the fact that diplodocids seemed to die out during the early Cretaceous
- Species name means “wide tail”, because of its broad caudal vertebrae
- Second confirmed diplodocid from Gondwana
- Only known diplodocid from South America and youngest and only one known from the Cretaceous (so far)
- Sebastián Apesteguía, one of the authors, said in a Reuters article, “a diplodocid in South America is as strange as finding a T. rex in Patagonia”
- Until Leinkupal, scientists thought diplodocids went extinct by the end of the Jurassic
- Diplodocids had only been found in North America, Europe, and Africa
- Late arrival to South America probably because diplodocids were in Africa since the Early to Middle Jurassic
- Possible that the sister group Rebbachisauridae ecologically replaced diplodocids (group rose in the early Late Cretaceous)
- Holotype is MMCH-Pv 63-1, a front tail vertebra
- Paratypes include more front tail vertebrae, a hind tail vertebra, a front dorsal vertebra, a front tail vertebra, and two vertebrae from the middle of the tail (possibly more found, but not officially referred)
- First thought to be a sister taxon to Tornieria (diplodocid that lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Tanzania)
- 2015 phylogenetic analysis of diplodocids found Leinkupal to be a sister taxon to Galeamopus (and said Leinkupal was still a valid taxon because it’s the only one found in South America and the only one that lived in the Cretaceous)
- Lived in a semiarid environment, south of a large desert
- Lived near braided rivers
- Other animals that lived at the same time and place included tetanurans, possible deinonychosaurians, and possible abelisauroids
Fun Fact: A new study estimates that there have been a total of about 2.5 billion T. rex throughout Earth’s history (or probably between 140 million and 42 billion individuals).
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