Episode 283 is all about Staurikosaurus, a small Triassic carnivore from what is now Brazil.
Interview with Phil Tippett, the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tippett Studio. He is a two-time Oscar and Emmy award winner for his visual effects work, for the movies Jurassic Park and Return of the Jedi and the documentary Dinosaur! and the TV film Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. His most recent project is the stop motion film Mad God. Follow him on Instagram @TippettStudio.
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In this episode, we discuss:
News:
- A new model shows the sauropod Spinophorosaurus likely held its head high off the ground. source
- The Don Harrington Discovery Center in Texas has two new animatronic dinosaurs and they’re asking for naming ideas. source
- Resident Evil 3 has a dinosaur mod that turns the zombies into T. rex. source
The dinosaur of the day: Staurikosaurus
- Herrerasaurid that lived in the Late Triassic in what is now Brazil (Santa Maria Formation)
- Small and probably fast, and bipedal carnivore
- Had long, slender limb bones
- Tibia longer than the femur
- Had strong hindlimbs and small forelimbs
- Estimated to be 7.5 ft (2.25 m) long and weigh 66 lb (30 kg)
- Had a long, stiff tail (about 4.4 ft or 1.3 m), may have helped it run and jump
- Not many fossils found, reconstructions tend to be based on it having some primitive features (so often shown as having five toes and five fingers)
- Had only two sacral vertebrae, which is a very primitive feature
- Had hollow limb bones with thick walls
- Jawbone almost as long as the femur, so probably had a large head
- Maybe had a sliding joint in the jaw so it could move forwards and backwards, and up and down, but a redescription of the holotype in 2011 found that the intramandibular joint and a few other characteristics, could not be confirmed because of either poor preservation or not available in the material
- Probably ate small and medium-sized vertebrates
- Had serrated teeth that curved back
- May have been able to catch and hold its prey, and slice and tear flesh
- Type species is Staurikosaurus pricei
- Described and named by Edwin Colbert in 1970
- Genus name means “southern cross lizard”
- Named after the southern cross star constellation, which is in the coat of arms of Brazil and you can see in the Southern Hemisphere
- At the time, not many dinosaurs had been found in the Southern Hemisphere
- Species name in honor of paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price
- Price found the fossils as part of an expedition in 1936 from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, along with Theodore White
- Fossils found in the Santa Maria Formation, Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil
- Found a lower jaw and partial skeleton, including vertebrae, rib fragments, femora, tibiae, fibulae, some teeth fragments, and more
- Skull is missing, but lower jaw is pretty complete
- One of the earliest dinosaurs, around 225 million years ago
- Closely related to Herrerasaurus
- Teyuwasu barbernai referred to Staurikosaurus as a synonym, by Garcia and others in 2019 (Teyuwasu named in 1999 based on a right femur and tibia, and according to the authors its anatomy was very similar to Staurikosaurus)
- Brazil’s National Museum had a reconstruction of Staurikosaurus, but the museum burned down in September 2018
- Skeleton on display at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology
Fun Fact: We’re not sure if Mesozoic dinosaurs peed, but birds don’t.
