Episode 61 is all about Tyrannotitan, a carcharodontosaurid with experimental teeth.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Tyrannotitan
• Name means “Tyrant titan”
• Bipedal carnivore that lived in the early Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina
• Species name is Tyrannotitan chubutensis
• Species name refers to the Chubut Province, where the fossils were found
• Described in 2005 by Fernando Novas, Silvina de Valais, Pat Vickers-Rich, and Tom Rich
• Fragmentary skull and lower jaw found, as well as teeth and partial post cranial skeleton
• Holotype included teeth, back vertebrae, proximal tail vertebrae, ribs, humerus, ulna, nearly complete femur, fibula, neck vertebrae
• Closely related to Carcharondontosaurus and Giganotosaurus, as well as Mapusaurus
• Along with Acrocanthosaurus, it’s the oldest known giant carcharodontosaurid in North America
• Had small forearms, like a tyrannosaurid, but was not because South America was isolated from North America and Africa at the time Tyrannotitan lived
• Some scientists think that Tyrannotitan could actually be the same as another carcharodontosaurid from South America, but for now it’s considered its own genus
• About 40 ft (12.2 m) long, though Gregory Paul estimated in 2010 it was 43 ft or 13 m long
• Weighed over 6 tons
• Tyrannotitan is different from other carcharodontosaurids because of it’s lack of penumaticity (air spaces in bones) in the hip and tail vertebrae, so had no air pockets to help reduce its weight
• Teeth were not as developed as other carcharodontosaurids (no clear curves to help with slicing, but shape was similar to shape of Allosaurus teeth)
• “Chisel-like” denticles on its teeth
• Teeth had denticles with grooves that divided them (denticles helped to tear into flesh); different from other teeth of later dinosaurs with curved teeth with serrated edges (may have been experimental)
• Teeth were good from stripping flesh from dead prey instead of crunching bones
• In May 2014, it was reported that there was a dinosaur graveyard of huge titanosaurs, along with over 50 Tyrannotitan teeth, on the La Flecha farm in Patagonia, Argentina
• Can see Tyrannotitan in the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Fergulio, in Patagonia, Argentina
• In the Jurassic World park builder game, you can create a Tyrannotitan
• Carcharodontosaurids (name means “shark-toothed lizards) were carnivorous theropods
• Ernst Stromer named the family in 1931
• Family includes Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan (all about same size or larger than T-rex)
• Carcharodontosaurids and spinosaurids were the largest predators in Gondwana in the early and middle Cretaceous
• Fun fact: Our solar system isn’t always in the same position within the Milky Way, it is actually orbiting very quickly(?). It is moving about 52,000mph or 84,000km/h and it takes about 200MY to make a full orbit. And possibly… according to “Mass Extinction and the Structure of the Milky Way,” by M.D. Filipovic and others, there may be a link between our solar system passing through the spiral arms of the milky way and our mass extinction events. Also, maybe not…