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The Big Dinosaur Podcast

The Big Dinosaur Podcast

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I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Gargoyleosaurus (Episode 236)

Episode 236 is all about Gargoyleosaurus, a Jurassic ankylosaur from Wyoming.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • A new Late Jurassic sauropod named Oceanotitan was described from Portugal source
  • A new study shows that sauropods probably walked on their toes with a large fleshy pad under their heel source
  • About 20 bones have been recovered from the ceratopsian in Highlands Ranch, Colorado source
  • The court case over the dueling dinosaurs (a ceratopsian and tyrannosaur) is headed back to Montana source
  • Theropod dinosaur footprints have been found in Phu Pha Lek National Park in Thailand source
  • Amerst College’s Beneski Museum of Natural History is now home to some dinosaur footprints source
  • Glenrock Paleon Museum in Wyoming has a new ceratopsian, nicknamed Carol source
  • Smithsonian created 3D models of the Nation’s T. rex and their Triceratops which are free to download source
  • There’s a big dinosaur exhibit at the Guangdong Science Center in China, called The World’s Largest Dinosaurs source
  • Flamingo Gardens in Florida has life-sized dinosaurs on display source
  • Field Station: Dinosaurs reopened in New Jersey source
  • The Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin has Lego dinosaurs for the summer source
  • In Kansas City, Missouri, retired couple Bruce and Judith Wake dig up dinosaurs and show them at schools source
  • PC Games made a list of the best dinosaur games on PC source
  • A new production of Ari Rudenko’s Ghosts of Hell Creek will in Bali, Indonesia on June 14-15 source

The dinosaur of the day: Gargoyleosaurus

  • Ankylosaur that lived in the Jurassic in what is now Wyoming, US (Morrison Formation)
  • Estimated to be about 9.8 to 11.5 ft (3 to 3.5 m) long
  • Estimated to weigh up to 2,200 lb (1 tonne)
  • Type species is Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum
  • Described in 1998 by Ken Carpenter and others
  • Name means “gargoyle lizard”
  • Genus name is because its profile looks like a gargoyle
  • Species name is refers to Parker and Pinegar, who found the holotype.
  • Triangular shaped skull
  • Skull is longer than it is wide
  • Had triangular scutes at the rear corners of the skull
  • Had a narrow rostrum
  • Had a simple, direct air passage in the snout (not complex and loops as seen in some Cretaceous ankylosaurids)
  • Had a long, narrow scooped beak
  • Had deeply inset cheek teeth
  • Had four kinds of dermal armor: thick, elongated spines, thin, triangular plates with hollow bases, individual flat, keeled ovate scutes, and scutes and ossicles fused into a single sheet
  • Had postorbital horns
  • Had shoulder spines
  • Had a mixture of ankylosaurid and nodosaurid features (jugal horns, hollow based spines and scutes are ankylosaur like, narrow snout is nodosaur like)
  • Fossils found in 1996 (found holotype and two partial skeletons), holotype includes most of the skull and a partial skeleton
  • Fossils found by Western Paleontological Laboratories, then donated to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
  • A bulldozer had damaged the skull
  • Gargoyleosaurus is one of two ankylosaurs found in the Morrison Formation, along with Mymoorapelta
  • In 2013 Ken Carpenter and others described a Gargoyleosaurus pelvis, and found that it had an interesting pelvis, because though it was oriented horizontally, it did not flare out like other ankylosaurs. The Gargoyleosaurus pelvis is “intermediate in its morphology” they said
  • Originally called Gargoyleosaurus parkpini, then renamed Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum in 2001 (they had to Latinize the name)
  • Can see a skeletal reconstruction at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Fun Fact: It’s possible that dinosaurs used feathers to improve their hearing.

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Nodosaurus (Episode 223)

Episode 223 is all about Nodosaurus, the original member of Nodosauridae: The clade of ankylosaurs without tail clubs.

Interview with Thomas Hopp, scientist, inventor, lecturer, and author. He’s written a number of short stories and novels, including the science fiction series Dinosaur Wars.

Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall
Hatching Alamosaurus

He has also proposed that dinosaurs evolved feathers on their hindlimbs to warm their nests. Here are PDFs of his feather paper and his poster from SVP.

Big thanks to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino.

You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • A new American Tyrannosauroid, Moros intrepidus, was about 30 million years younger than T. rex and 1% its size source
  • The Irish coast guard were called to recover some T. rex bones which turned out to be a hoax source
  • Matt Lamanna, will present “Diving for Dinosaurs: Cretaceous fossils from Croatia” at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History source
  • Pismo Beach, California, had a grand re-opening recently for Dinosaur Caves Park source
  • In the UK, you can now buy Easter-themed chocolate dinosaurs at both Aldi and Marks & Spencer source
  • Metahub posted a list of the best and worst dinosaurs in Jurassic World Alive source

The dinosaur of the day: Nodosaurus

  • Ankylosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now North America
  • Herbivorous
  • Estimated to be about 13 to 20 ft (4 to 6 m) long
  • Had bony plates on the top of its body, and may have had spikes on the side of its body
  • Bony plates were like bands, alternating between narrow and wide bands over the ribs
  • The wider bands were also covered in bony knobs
  • Had a short neck and a long, stiff tail (no club)
  • Had a small, narrow head, pointed snout, small teeth, and powerful jaws
  • Had five toes on each foot
  • Had powerful forelimbs
  • Named in 1889 by Othniel Charles Marsh (very brief description)
  • Richard Swan Lull gave a more detailed description in 1921
  • Lull also described flat scutes, spines, and plates, though he did not illustrate them
  • Carpenter and Kirkland revisited the description in 1998
  • In 2015, a 4-year-old boy, Wylie Brys found what’s thought to be a Nodosaurus fossil in Mansfield, Texas. He and his father Tim were looking around behind a shopping center. At first they thought it was s turtle fossil. They reached out to Southern Methodist University and worked with them to excavate the area
  • Type species is Nodosaurus textilis
  • Name means “knobbed lizard”
  • Species name refers to the texture near the head (small ossifications in quadrangular form, arranged in rows. Marsh said “The external surface is perculiarly marked by a texture that appears interwoven, like a coarse cloth. This has suggested the species name.”
  • Nodosaurus is the type genus for the nodosaurid group
  • Two groups in Ankylosauria: nodosaurids and ankylosaurids
  • Nodosaurids are usually more primitive, and they don’t have tail clubs, and generally skulls are not as short or broad as ankylosaurids, and the skulls were not covered in scutes
  • Can see Nodosaurus in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (a.k.a. Normanpedia), illustrated by John Sibbick in 1889
  • Can also see Nodosaurus in the Land Before Time series (appears in the 3rd movie, as a character named Nod)
  • Can also see Nodosaurus in the game Jurassic World Evoution (unlock via the Hammond Foundation when you complete the Science Division’s mission on Isla Tacaño. Model is based on Borealopelta

Fun Fact: For the tyrannosaur linneage to evolve from Moros interpidus size to T. rex size they would have needed to grow about 4 grams per generation.S

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Nedoceratops (Episode 219)

Episode 219 is all about Nedoceratops, the lesser known ceratopsian in the Triceratops vs Torosaurus debate.

We also interview Denver Fowler & Liz Freedman Fowler, paleontologists who work at the Badlands Dinosaur Museum. Denver is the curator. Liz is an Associate Professor of Biology at Dickinson State University. They have worked on a nodosaur, tyrannosaur, ceratopsians, hadrosaurs, and other dinosaurs all over the world. Follow Denver on twitter and check out their upcoming conference.

Big thanks to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino.

You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • A new sauropod from Tanzania, Wamweracaudia, emerges from an analysis of 100+ sauropods source
  • Dave Hone has a survey up to get feedback on his research impact source
  • Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha Nebraska has a new indoor exhibit called Dinosaur UpRoar source
  • There’s a new T. rex Science Center in the works in Charleston, West Virginia source
  • Polish graphic designer Jans Bajtlik made a tie featuring a map of Warsaw and dinosaurs source
  • Dead Sound released a short animated dinosaur story called Sharp Teeth source

The dinosaur of the day: Nedoceratops

  • Ceratopsid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Wyoming, North America (Lance Formation)
  • Part of the Triceratops / Torosaurus debate (discussed in episode Ultrasaurus – Episode 21)
  • Controversial genus, some think it’s a valid genus and others think it is part of the Triceratops growth series
  • Known from one skull
  • Skull was 2.6 ft (1.8 m) long
  • Skull was found in 1891 near Lightning Creek
  • Skull has a rounded stump instead of a nasal horn and the brow horns are almost vertical. Otherwise, it’s similar to a Triceratops skull, but larger, and with a short face. Also, has large holes in the frill (different sizes), unlike Triceratops (could be a pathology or genetic)
  • Lull thought the holes in the frill were from “accidental gorings” from another dinosaur, but it’s not clear if that’s true
  • Type species is Nedoceratops hatcheri
  • Name means “insufficient horned face” (for lack of a nasal horn)
  • Nedoceratops has a couple other names: Diceratops and Diceratus
  • Marsh started describing Nedoceratops in the 1800s, as part of his Ceratopsidae monograph. However, he died of pneumonia in 1899 before finishing, and John Bell Hatcher finished the Triceratops section (but he died in 1904 of typhoid fever before finishing), so Richard Swann Lull finished the monograph in 1905, and published Hatcher’s description of the skull separately and named it Diceratops hatcheri (means “two horned face”
  • Lull didn’t actually believe it was a separate genus (thought it was a pathology), and in 1933 renamed it as Triceratops hatcheri
  • In 2007, Andrey Sergeevich Ukrainsky renamed Diceratops / Triceratops as Nedoceratops (the name Diceratops was used for an insect)
  • However, Octávio Mateus didn’t realize Ukrainsky had renamed the dinosaur, and renamed it Diceratus in 2008. Diceratus is now considered to be a junior synonym (since the name Nedoceratops came first)
  • Debate about it being part of the Triceratops growth series (in between Triceratops and Torosaurus), and Scannella and Horner proposed Nedoceratops lost its nasal horn while alive or during fossilization. However, Farke said the shape of the horns and the texture of the bone suggest Nedoceratops was an “old adult” In 2013 Leonardo Maiorino and others found Triceratops and Torosaurus to be distinct genera
  • Farke suggested the holes in the frill weren’t from gorings but from “the result of bone resorption in an area of the frill that was already thin to begin with.”
  • Maiorino found that Nedoceratops “has a variable position relative to Triceratops and Torosaurus,” depending on what you’re looking at, and that the size of the skull could support the hypothesis of it being an intermediate between the two, but the shape of the skull is very different
  • Some scientists think Nedoceratops could be a direct ancestor to Triceratops, or its nearest relative
  • Need more fossils to know for sure about Nedoceratops, and to examine the bone microstructure

Fun Fact: Dinosaurs dominated the land on Earth for longer than any other group of animals.

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by Indiana University Press. Their Life of the Past series is lavishly illustrated and meticulously documented to showcase the latest findings and most compelling interpretations in the ever-changing field of paleontology. Find their books at iupress.indiana.edu

I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: Dracopelta (Episode 211)

Episode 211 is all about Dracopelta, an ankylosaur with sides covered in overlapping armor.

We also interview Riley Black, a science writer who’s written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Nature, Slate, and Jurassic World, to name a few. She has a blog, Laelaps, on Scientific American, and she’s written numerous books, including My Beloved Brontosaurus, Prehistoric Predators, and Written in Stone. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Big thanks to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino. You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

Answer our survey to give feedback and help shape our show for next year! bit.ly/IKDsurvey2018

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

  • A new dinosaur, and close relative to Carnotaurus, was named after the supervillain Thanos source
  • The holotype jaw of Megalosaurus from the 1790s was chemically analyzed, they found Lead and Barium indicating two separate repairs source
  • A rare opalized dinosaur toe bone of Kakuru kujani from South Australia resurfaced for sale online after five decades source
  • Johnston Park has a new theropod on display, known as the Rosewood Swamp Tramper, along with other dinosaur statues source
  • 39 juvenile Psittacosaurus went on display in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China source
  • The Museum of Science of the Chicxulub Crater just opened on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula source
  • The Yale Peabody Museum renovations will begin in 2020, with plans to reopen the museum in the fall of 2023 source
  • The Museum of the Rockies is offering Tours for Tots: Growing Dinosaurs on February 5 source
  • The Dalton Wells dinosaur site, north of Moab, near Arches National Park in Utah, is going through a proposal to have an entity manage it to help manage vandalism source
  • DinoFest 2019 is happening soon, on January 26 and 27 at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City source
  • The Magic Forest amusement park in Lake George, New York has a new manager who plans on adding dinosaurs source
  • A welding company in Kilgore, Texas has a steel raptor source
  • A four-year-old received over 100 dinosaur toys from kind strangers after he lost his collection in the recent Camp Fire source

The dinosaur of the day: Dracopelta

  • Ankylosaur that lived in the Jurassic in what is now Portugal
  • Being from the Jurassic it was in the early stages of ankylosaur evolution
  • It’s a nodasaur so it didn’t have a tail club
  • Herbivorous
  • Type species is Dracopelta zbyszewskii
  • Name means “dragon shield”
  • Species name in honor of the paleontologist Georges Zbyszewski
  • -a portugese vertebrate paleontologist
  • Described in 1980 by Peter Galton
  • Only one known specimen, found in Ribamar. There are two localities called Ribamar in the same region of Portugal. One is from the Early Cretaceous, the other from the Late Jurassic. In 2003, Antunes and Mateus suggested Dracopelta probably came from the Late Jurassic locality
  • Holotype is a partial skeleton, includes a rib cage, thirteen dorsal vertebrae, five different types of scutes, and ossified tendons
  • It came out as a nice articulated block, but a large portion of the middle had eroded away
  • It had a very broad back for its early Jurassic age. Similar to later ankylosaurs.
  • It’s sides are covered with overlapping armor. The largest piece is 19cm by 11cm (7.5in x 4.3in)
  • The fact that it had ossified tendons may mean that other relatives may have had them too
  • Part of Ankylosauria, but considered to be incertae sedis (uncertain placement) within (could be ankylosaurid or nodosaurid)
  • Other dinosaurs from the same formation include ornithopods, Hypsolophodon, the sauropods Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Astrodon, the stegosaur Dacentrurus, the iguanodontid Camptosaurus, and the carnivore Megalosaurus
  • The holotype is in the Museum of the Geological Survey of Portugal, Lisbon

Fun Fact:

X-rays can easily see through rock, but not lead. Basically because lead has so many more electrons than Silicon and Oxygen (the main components of rock).

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. Get a baby T. rex sculpture or other rewards by joining their Kickstarter! kck.st/2FRwB9p

And by Indiana University Press. Their Life of the Past series is lavishly illustrated and meticulously documented to showcase the latest findings and most compelling interpretations in the ever-changing field of paleontology. Find their books at iupress.indiana.edu

This Week in Dinosaur News: A new ankylosaur was found in New Mexico, Fallen Kingdom DVD released, and more

“Cervical/pectoral osteoderms of WSC 16505, holotype of I. zephyri.” retrieved on 9/19/2018 from https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5435

 

Here’s what came out this week in dinosaur news:

  • A new nodosaurid ankylosaur, Invictarx zephyri, was named based on osteoderms found in New Mexico source
  • A review of Ornithischian dinosaurs in the Morrison Formation synonymized a few and split out another named Dryosaurus elderae source
  • Visitors to Crystal Palace Park got to get close to the dinosaurs last weekend for Heritage Open Days source
  • Three of the 30 dinosaur statues in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, were recently damaged source
  • Chrome used a dinosaur for their 404 error page because dinosaurs didn’t have internet source
  • On September 18, Universal Pictures and Facebook launched an AR experience for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to coincide with the DVD release source

Check out these stories, our fun fact, and dinosaur of the day Bonitasaura in episode 199 of the I Know Dino Podcast!

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