The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 166 is all about Minmi, an ankylosaur from Australia that had scutes and osteoderms all over its body.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• New Jurassic dinosaur, Caihong juji, with iridescent feathers found
• Researchers studied hollow bones to understand dinosaur’s respiratory system
• Scientists analyzed an Edmontosaurus bonebed
• A dinosaur tail from Morocco was auctioned off in Mexico City to fundraise to reconstruct schools damaged by earthquakes, but the tail may not be authentic
• A Rajasaurus narmadensis dinosaur egg was found in Balasinor, Gujarat, India
• China is developing a new dinosaur theme park in Yunyang County
• The Paleon Museum in Glenrock, Wyoming, is completely run by volunteers
• Utahraptor may become the state dinosaur in Utah
• Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs are back, and performing at Storyhouse in Chester, UK on February 20
• New mobile survival game, Dino War, is out in a closed test beta
• A group of people gathered in Portland, Maine, to dance in T. rex costumes

The dinosaur of the day: Minmi

• • Ankylosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Queensland, Australia
  • Described in 1980 by Ralph Molnar
  • Dr. Alan Barholomai found the skeleton in 1964, near Minmi Crossing, in Queensland
  • Only one species: Minmi paravertebra
  • Genus name refers to Minmi Crossing, and may mean a large lily in the local Aboriginal language, but may also come from min min, a will-o-the-wisp
  • Species name refers to the bone elements found along the vertebrae
  • For 24 years, Minmi had the shortest dinosaur name (until Mei was named in 2004)
  • Holotype consists of a partial skeleton, no skull, but back vertebrae, ribs, right hindlimb, and plates of the belly armor
  • More complete skeleton found in 1989 that has the skull and articulated body armor, and was referred to Minmi, but in 2015, it was named its own genus, Kunbarrasaurus
  • Other specimens found between 1989 and 1996 were referred to Minmi, and they had osteoderms, pelvis, ribs, partial thighbone, and partial shinbone
  • Estimated to be about 3 m (9.8 ft) long and weigh 600 lb (300 kg)
  • Had long limbs, which it may have use to find cover under brushes to hide from large predators that may have been able to flip it on its back
  • Herbivorous, quadrupedal, and armored
  • Did not have a clubbed tail
  • Had scutes across its back, and larger osteoderms on the neck, head, shoulders, and hips
  • Had horizontally oriented plates along the sides of its vertebrae, unlike other ankylosaurs
  • Horizontal osteoderms (which were thin, bony rods) ran parallel to the vertebra, instead of the ribs (how it got its name)
  • In 1980 Molnar said these plates were ossified tendons, but said they looked like the pathological tendon aponeurosis (sheet of tissue) of modern crocodiles. In 2014 Victoria Arbour said this was unlikely and only found one distinctive trait in the holotype, but in 2015 Arbour and Philip Currie found it wasn’t unique, which would mean the holotype had no diagnostic features and the Minmi was a nomen dubium. But, the 2015 description of Kunbarrasaurus said that there were new unique Minmi traits and it should be considered valid
  • Molnar placed Minmi in ankylosauria in 1980, though a new analysis in 2011 found it was the basalmost known ankylosaurid. Arbour and Currie later found it to be too primitive to be in ankylosauridae or nodosauridae. In 2010, Gregory Paul suggested it was part of Minmidae, a very basal ankylosaur group that was isolated on Gondwana and included Antarctopelta
  • Minmi gut contents were found (cololite). A cololite is a food pellet that was in its stomach and shows what food it ate. This pellet showed Minmi ate seeds, fruit, steams, leaves, and plant tissue with spores. The fibrous tissues were cut into small pieces, which helps show that it chopped food up with its teeth, after cropping with its beak, and did not use gastroliths. If that’s the case, Minmi probably had cheeks
  • All Minmi specimens have been found in marine rocks. When Minmi lived, its habitat was covered by a shallow sea, and carcasses sometimes drifted out after floods
  • One specimen was found with teeth of small bramble sharks, so it’s possible the sharks ate some of the dead dinosaur as it laid upside down on the sea floor

Fun Fact:

Plural of Tyrannosaurus rex is Tyrannosaurus rex (like sheep). You can say tyrannosaurids, but that can also refer to different species within the genus, if there are any.

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.