I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Polacanthus (Episode 248)


Episode 248 is all about Polacanthus, an ankylosaur that was described within the 1800s, however nobody is certain who named it.

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On this episode, we talk about:

Information:

  • After a long time of being categorised as Massospondylus, “gray cranium” has a brand new title, Ngwevu intloko supply
  • Mission Jurassic in North Wyoming might maintain over 100 dinosaurs in a single sq. mile supply
  • A gaggle of juvenile hadrosaurs was discovered at Pipestone Creek, close to the Philip J. Currie Museum supply
  • The Scottish authorities is engaged on higher defending the fossils on the Isle of Skye in Scotland supply
  • In India, a bunch of scientists are pushing for a invoice that may designate and safeguard fossil websites supply
  • In Romania, new dinosaur nests have been discovered, most definitely from a hadrosaur like Telmatosaurus supply
  • The Pure Historical past Museum in London has digitized their holotype of Mantellisaurus supply
  • The Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs lately opened a brand new exhibition corridor, themed Paleozoic Period supply
  • Dinosaur Park in Laurel, Maryland has an open home this summer time, on September 7 supply
  • Trix the T.rex is again in Leiden, on the up to date Naturalis Biodiversity Heart within the Netherlands supply
  • A brand new venture known as “On the Path of Dinosaurs,” will carry the Dinosaur Tracks from the Australian Dampier Peninsula to life supply
  • youngsters visiting the North Carolina Museum of Pure Sciences repeatedly attempt to assist the injured sauropod, giving it hugs and Band-Aids. supply
  • South Dakota rancher Kenny Brown lately retired and bequeathed his 1,330 acre ranch to the College of Mines supply
  • PLOS One weblog has an inventory of occasions for Nationwide Fossil Day within the US (October 16) supply
  • On August 29, the US Postal Service is issuing 4 new T. rex stamps, with a holographs supply
  • Nickelodeon has a brand new animated sequence popping out September 14, LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nubar supply

The dinosaur of the day: Polacanthus

  • Ankylosaur that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now England (Higher Wessex Formation)
  • Quadrupedal ornithischian
  • Not well-known (particularly the cranium)
  • Estimated to be about 16 ft (5 m) lengthy
  • Gregory Paul estimated it to weigh 2 tonnes
  • Had comparatively lengthy hindlimbs
  • Physique had armor plates and spikes
  • Had a big pelvic or sacral defend (bone over the hips). The holotype has 4 rows of bigger osteoderms on the aspect, with smaller ossicles
  • John Whitaker Hulke within the late 1800s recommended the tail had two rows of osteoderms on all sides
  • Franz Nopcsa in 1905 thought the tail and entrance of the physique had two parallel rows of spikes, one on all sides
  • Wiliam T Blows in 1987 largely agreed with Nopcsa however mentioned there have been three spike varieties
  • Sort species: Polacanthus foxii
  • Present in 1865 on the Isle of Wight by Reverend William Fox
  • Genus means “many thorns” or “many prickles”
  • The genus title refers back to the spikes on its armor
  • The species title refers to Fox
  • Fox at first was going to have his buddy Alfred Tennyson title the dinosaur. Tennyson recommended naming it Euacanthus vectianus however this wasn’t accepted
  • Fox talked about the discover in a lecture to the British Affiliation, and let Richard Owen title it Polacanthus foxii
  • The Illustrated London Information printed an nameless article with Fox’s lecture however there’s no corresponding publication by Owen
  • Some folks suppose that Thomas Huxley named the dinosaur, others suppose it was Owen, Fox, or somebody nameless
  • Holotype consists of an incomplete skeleton (contains vertebrae, sacrum, a lot of the pelvis, a lot of the left hindleg, ribs, chevrons, ossified tendons, and spikes)
  • Early illustrations gave it a generic head (solely knew the again half)
  • John Whitaker Hulke printed the primary description of the dinosaur in 1881, and mentioned it had deteriorated over time (the armor had largely fallen aside). However then Fox died (similar 12 months), and his fossils have been acquired by the British Museum of Pure Historical past. Caleb Barlow reassembled Polacanthus, though Hulke thought it couldn’t be achieved
  • Hulke redescribed Polacanthus in 1887, specializing in the armor
  • Then in 1905, Franz Nopcsa described Polacanthus and illustrated the spikes
  • Different potential specimens included two present in 1843 by John Edward Lee
  • Extra have been referred, and so they embrace elements of the armor or single bones
  • Wiliam T Blows exacavated a second partial skeleton (with elements of the cranium) in 1979. Elements of it had been eliminated since 1876
  • Many species have been named however just one species is taken into account to be legitimate now
  • Different species names embrace Polacanthus becklesi (now thought-about to be a junior synonym), Polacanthus marshi (Blows claimed in 1987 that Hoplitosaurus was Polacanthus marshi, however this has now been rejected), Polacanthus rudgwickensis (named by Blows in 1996 aftering reviewing fossils present in 1985 considered Iguanodon, it’s about 30% longer than Polacanthus foxii however in 2015 Blows named it as a separate genus, Horshamosaurus)
  • Additionally, Polacanthus ponderosus (Nopcsa named in 1928 based mostly on a left scapula that Gideon Mantell had thought was Hylaeosaurus, in addition to a tibia and humerus from one other specimen, however it seems the tibia and humerus have been discovered on Wight, and are casts, whereas the scapula was from Bolney)
  • Walter Coombs renamed Polacanthus foxii to Hylaeosaurus foxi in 1971, however this has not been accepted
  • Some folks have thought Polacanthus was the identical as Hylaeosaurus armatus, however Blows rejected that in 1987 based mostly on age and anatomical variations

Enjoyable Truth:
There’s new proof that some theropods in Mongolia laid eggs in teams at nesting websites.



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