Episode 427: The first dinosaur respiratory infection with Cary Woodruff. We discuss Dolly, the sauropod with the first probable respiratory infection in a dinosaur; Also, a new tyrannosauroid, a new titanosauriform, and the dinosaur with the longest neck.

News:

• Paleontologist Jorge Calvo passed away on January 10 of this year source
• A new tyrannosauroid from Northeast China is the first predatory dinosaur found in the area source
• A new titanosauriform, Ruixinia zhangi, had an unusual tail source

Interview:

Cary Woodruff, a sauropod specialist and curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. He recently described Dolly, the first non-avian dinosaur found to have a respiratory infection. Follow him on twitter @DoubleBeam

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The dinosaur of the day: Xinjiangtitan

• Chinese: 新疆巨龙 (pinyin: Xinjiangjùlóng)
• Mamenchisaurid sauropod that lived in the Middle Jurassic in what is now Xinjiang, China (Qiketai Formation)
• Stand out feature is its extremely long neck
• Neck was even longer than Mamenchisaurus (one Mamenchisaurus species neck is estimated to be about 39 ft or 12 m long)
• Xinjiangtitan’s neck is estimated to be up to 49 ft (15 m) long
• Had the longest neck among mamenchisaurids, that are known so far
• Other dinosaurs out there that may have had longer necks, but we don’t have enough fossils to confirm (for example, Supersaurus may have had a neck that was up to about nearly 56 ft or 17 m long)
• Estimated to be about 98 to 105 ft (30 to 32 m) long and weigh 40 metric tons
• Thighbone found is about 5.4 ft (1.65 m) long
• Had relatively short hind limbs
• Also had a long, whip like tail, and stood on four columnar legs
• Type species is Xinjiangtitan shanshanesis
• Found an incomplete skeleton, but includes a very complete vertebral column (the neck), and a nearly complete tail
• Also part of the skull, part of the pelvis, and most of the left hind limb
• Fossils found in 2012 by a joint expedition between Jilin University, Shenyang Normal University, and Xinjiang Geological Survey Institute
• Described in 2013 by Wu Wen-hao and others
• Genus name refers to Xinjiang
• Species name refers to the alternative name for Shanshan, the county where it was found (named after the Shanshan Kingdom)
• Originally described with only two neck vertebrae, in addition to other vertebrae and part of the pelvis and hind limb
• Zhang and others redescribed all the material and included the 18 neck vertebrae in 2018 (parts of the skeleton were left unexposed and unexavacted the first time around)
• More fossils excavated in 2014 and 2015
• Most complete vertebral (spinal) column found in Asia, so far
• Vertebrae were all found articulated, in situ
• Neck had 18 vertebrae, which together is estimated to be about 49 ft (15 m) long, according to Zhang and others in 2018
• Some definitions, thanks to Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week:
• The main part of the vertebra is the centrum
• There’s a ball in the front of the centrum, called the condyle
• There’s a socket at the back of the centrum, called the cotyle
• The condyle and cotyle fit together
• There’s a range for how long the neck was, based on whether you use the minimum or maximum centrum length in your calculations (based on whether or not you include the front, or anterior, condyle, because sometimes they’re completely buried in the cotyles, and sometimes, like in camels, they don’t reach each other) and how much cartilage you assume was in the neck
• Zhang and others used the maximum centrum lengths
• Matt Wedel on Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week estimated the neck to be closer to about 44 ft or 13.4 m long (using the minimum centrum lengths), partly based on condyles being buried in the cotyles in a couple vertebrae
• Type specimen is at the Shanshan Geological Museum

Fun Fact:

The first ever mounted dinosaur display drew huge crowds, but it remained the only mounted skeleton for 15 years.

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