Episode 316 is all about Xenoceratops, a centrosaurine ceratopsid that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Alberta, Canada.
We additionally interview Taylor McCoy, creator of the web site All the things Dinosaurs. He was certainly one of our first ever visitors on the present and returns to speak about Tyrannosaurs, the Carnegie museum, a spot in Pennsylvania to go fossil searching, and far more.
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On this episode, we focus on:
Information:
- A sauropod leg bone was discovered with dozens of worm-like microorganisms fossilized inside supply
- A brand new mamenchisaurid was present in China supply
- Derby Kansas is having a “Holly Jolly Jurassic Vacation” occasion supply
The dinosaur of the day: Xenoceratops
- Centrosaurine ceratopsid that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Alberta, Canada (Foremost Formation)
- Herbivorous
- Most likely had a parrot-like or turtle-like beak
- Estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) lengthy (exhausting to know for positive based mostly on fossils at the moment discovered) and weighed about 2 tons
- Had a big frill
- Had two thick knobs that projected out the center of the frill (on the highest). Subsequent to every knob was a protracted spike that pointed outwards and again
- No bumps or different ornamentation within the midline of the frill
- Most likely had nasal and forehead horns like different centrosaurines
- Presumably had massive forehead horns (based mostly on a specimen housed on the Royal Tyrrell that hasn’t been formally described, however probably belongs to Xenoceratops)
- Most likely had a protracted, low, nasal bone, much like Medusaceratops, based mostly on the fragment discovered
- Kind and solely species: Xenoceratops foremostensis
- Fossils present in 1958 by Wann Langston, Jr., who discovered cranium fragments close to Foremost, Alberta, Canada
- Fossils present in a bone mattress (described as a low range bone mattress)
- Fragments saved on the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, after which in 2003 David Evans and Michael Ryan began wanting on the fossils (one was a spike, the opposite an unusually massive socket), and analyzed them extra completely in 2009
- Not many dinosaurs recognized from the formation (largely tooth, some hadrosaur skeletons and pachycephalosaurid Colepiocephale)
- Described by Michael Ryan, Dave Evans, and Kieran Shepherd in 2012
- In 2012, it was the oldest recognized ceratopsid from Canada, and it’s the primary ceratopsian described from the Foremost Formation
- Genus identify means “alien horned face”
- Genus identify refers back to the lack of ceratopsians recognized from the Foremost Formation
- Species identify is in honor of the city Foremost, in Alberta, Canada
- Holotype is a partial parietal (aspect of the cranium)
- Different cranium bones, together with horn and frill materials, have been discovered, from not less than three grownup people. And there’s a fragmentary cranium on the Royal Tyrrell Museum which may be Xenoceratops
- Specimens included “a whole lot of unidentifiable small fragments”. Based on the authors, identifiable items are normally bigger than 20 mm
- Considered a centrosaurine due to the squamosal (centrosaurines had massive nasal horns and decorative frills)
- Not many identifiable fossil materials discovered within the Foremost Formation due to the restricted quantity of publicity, however based mostly on microvertebrate localities and recognized dinosaurs within the space, the dinosaurs in Foremost Formation have been in all probability much like these within the Oldman and Dinosaur Park formations, however extra basal
- Michael Ryan mentioned the invention of Xenoceratops reveals how far more there may be to study concerning the origins of ceratopsids
- Doable the scale of the horns have been for recognition and to draw mates (concept). Michael Ryan mentioned in EarthSky, “Xenoceratops reveals us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had huge spikes on their head shields and that their cranial ornamentation would solely develop into extra elaborate as new species advanced.”
- Michael Ryan and Dave Evans are main the Southern Alberta Dinosaur Undertaking, to study extra about Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and the way they advanced
- Can see Xenoceratops on a silver coin made by The Royal Canadian Mint (at the moment not in the stores) however appears cool
Enjoyable Reality:
Sure species of turtles can breathe by their cloaca.