The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 156 is all about Augustynolophus, the official state dinosaur of California.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• A new paper supports the use of the proposed classification of Ornithoscelida
• A large trackway was found in Mongolia with a Gallimimus foot underneath
• “Megatheropod” tracks were found in Lesotho, Southern Africa from the Early Jurassic for the first time
• A new summary of Ankylosaurus features estimates it at 8m (26ft) long and the largest individual weighed up to 8 tons
• “What did Westchester look like during the age of dinosaurs?” Warm like Virginia
• Pop Chart Lab has a new dinosaur taxonomy poster that portrays over 700 genera of dinosaurs in one infographic
• Idaho Public Television‘s series Science Trek released a series of digital shorts on dinosaurs
• BBC created a video that answers the question, “what did dinosaurs taste like?”
• There are two new touring dinosaur exhibits: Dinosaur Time Trek: Shark Edition and Dinosaur Time Trek: Dragon Edition. Shark Edition
• Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida, is getting dinosaurs again with the exhibit Dinosaurs Are Back
• There’s a new board game called Dinosaur Island which allows you to build dinosaurs like Dino Tycoon
• The Science Museum of Minnesota is selling limited edition purple Brontosaurus shirts like the one shown in Stranger Things 2

The dinosaur of the day: Augustynolophus

• Saurolophine hadrosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now California (Moreno Formation)
• Name means Augustyn’s crest
• Named for Gretchen Augustyn, to honor the Augustyn family, who helped support the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum in L.A., and the fact that it’s related to Saurolophus
• Type species is Augustynolophus morrisi
• Species name is in honor of paleontologist William Morris, to honor his contributions to understanding hadrosaurids
• Originally thought to be Saurolophus morrisi (described in 2013), but a more detailed examination found that its skull was very different, especially compared to Saurolophus osborni and Saurolophus angusti
• Named in 2014 by Albert Prieto-Márquez,‭ ‬Jonathan R.‭ ‬Wagner,‭ ‬Phil R.‭ ‬Bell‭, and ‬Luis M.‭ ‬Chiappe
• Two specimens have been found
• Juvenile specimen was found in 1939 (parts of the skull and limbs), much smaller than the holotype
• The holotype was found in 1943 (most of the skull, vertebrae, and limb and hand bones)
• Had a solid nasal crest, similar to Saurolophus
• Not much known about Augustynolophus
• Herbivorous and chewed its food
• Adult skull was about 3 ft (1 m) long, so may have been a pretty big dinosaur
• May have been 26 ft (8 m) long and weighed 3 tons
• Augustynolophus is a sister taxon to Saurolophus. Augustynolophus, Saurolophus, and Prosaurolophus are part of Saurolophini
• Augustynolophus shows there was more hadrosaur diversity than previously thought in North America in the Late Cretaceous
• Augustynolophus specimens have only been found in California so far
• Became the official state dinosaur of California in September 2017
• Augustynolophus has a Twitter account. The bio reads: Native Californian, Los Angeles resident, older than Jerry Brown (barely), vegetarian, firm believer in science.
• Can see Augustynolophus at the Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (has both specimens)

Fun Fact:

Cope’s Rule (the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to grow in body size over evolutionary time) wasn’t created by Edward Drinker Cope, and it’s wrong. Therefore, Cope’s Rule is neither Cope’s, nor a rule.

From information in “Cope’s rule and the adaptive landscape of dinosaur body size evolution” by Roger B. J. Benson, Gene Hunt, Matthew T. Carrano, Nicolás Campione

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you in part 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