The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 186 is all about Othnielia, a small ornithischian that appears in the Jurassic Park book as a warning sign.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Scientists hypothesize how bacteria in dinosaur gut contents may explain why herbivores lived in groups
• The mystery theropod dinosaur auctioned off at the Eiffel Tower sold for more than 2 million Euros
• Trix the T. rex is on display at Paris Jardin des Plantes for three months
• Alberta, Canada has new drivers licenses and ID cards, with Albertosaurus on them
• Rent a Dinosaur has a new Triceratops dinosaur
• A recent high school graduate has been wearing dinosaur shirts for 5,000 consecutive days
• Our listener August has a great pay it forward story involving the book Raptor Red
• Telegraph shared a list of dinosaur spots to visit this summer
• South Deerfield, Massachusetts has a Rock, Fossil, and Dinosaur Shop
• IFC Mall in Hong Kong has a T. rex on display until June 27
• Another dinosaur movie, Triassic World, came out on June 19
• Paleontologist Steve Brusatte and visual effects specialist Phil Tippett discussed the realism of Jurassic Park, and what we’ve learned about dinosaurs since 1993

The dinosaur of the day: Othnielia

• • Referred to as “Othys” in the first Jurassic Park book, and found in trees (no evidence it actually spent time in trees)
  • The Othys are a warning sign in the book that Jurassic Park is failing, because they are able to leap over the electrified fences, and are spotted by
  • Tim Murphy in a Stegosaurus pen when Tim is on a tour of the park. They are an example of how the security measures to keep dinosaurs in their pens don’t really work, since the Jurassic Park team doesn’t have the knowledge or technology to restrict them
  • Ornithischian that lived in the Jurassic in what is now the U.S. (Morrison Formation)
  • Type species is Othnielia rex
  • Othniel Charles Marsh originally described the bones in 1877, but called it Nanosaurus rex
  • Named in 1977 by Peter Galton, who named it after Marsh
  • Marsh found a femur, and fossils were assigned to Othnielia later, though when Galton revised Othnielia he found it only included the original femur and a few bits, and he reassigned two partial skeletons to Othnielosaurus (another ornithischian). Then later Galton thought the femur was undiagnostic and Othnielia was dubious, and because he thought it was a nomen dubium he could not refer other specimens that were previously assigned to Othnielia to Othnielia (including a dentary and a nearly complete specimen in the Aathal Dinosaur Museum, in Switzerland, nicknamed Barbara)
  • In 2001, Kathleen Brill and Kenneth Carpenter found a baby ornithopod in the Morrison Formation, possibly Othnielia, that’s about 1/3 the size of the known adult
  • Small herbivore, about 4.9-6.6 ft (1.5-2 m) long, and weighed about 22 lb (10 kg)
  • Bipedal and agile, with small arms and long legs
  • Probably lived in a forest
  • Other dinosaurs that lived in the same time and place include sauropods such as Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus, theropods such as Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Ornitholestes, Stegosaurus, and ornithopods such as Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus

Fun Fact:

Stegosaurus may have had alternating plates on its back, but in Jurassic World Stegosaurus is depicted as having parallel plates.

This episode was brought to you 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.

Enter to win a TRX Dinosaurs-made 1:1 scale Velociraptor sculpture. It’s open to anyone in the US or Canada (except Quebec) ages 18 and older to win. Complete rules are at https://iknowdino.com/velociraptor-sculpture-sweepstakes-official-rules

This week’s link to enter is http://bit.ly/LastChance186.