Episode 242 is all about Euoplocephalus, an ankylosaur from Dinosaur Provinical Park in Canada.
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On this episode, we talk about:
Information:
- Notatesseraeraptor, a properly preserved theropod of the Late Triassic was described in Switzerland supply
- A brand new research of non-iridescent structural colours in feathers described blue feathers in an extinct hen supply
- An article coated paleontologist Amy Atwater, the girl behind the Instagram account @mary_annings_revenge supply
- The corporate Handbuilt has created a extremely cool augmented actuality Psittacosaurus exhibit supply
- The Middle for Science Instructing & Studying in Rockville Centre, New York has a brand new dinosaur exhibit supply
- A zoo in Pennsylvania has a brand new dinosaur exhibit, together with a 65 ft lengthy Brachiosaurus that they’re crowdsourcing a reputation for supply
- Particular results artist Tom Devlin opened a “Dinosaur Journey” attraction in Boulder Metropolis, Nevada supply
- In Washington, a bunch in inflatable T. rex costumes ran round a horse monitor supply
- The movie Doraemon the Film: Nobita’s New Dinosaur is popping out in 2020 supply
The dinosaur of the day: Euoplocephalus
- Ankylosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Canada
- About 18 ft (5.5 m) lengthy and weighed about 2.5 tonnes
- About 7.9 ft (2.4 m) vast
- Had a flat, vast physique and huge intestine
- Had a large ribcage
- Quadrupedal, with quick, sturdy legs
- Sturdy forelimbs, shorter than the hindlimbs
- In all probability had plenty of muscle groups, primarily based on sturdy bones
- Had a brief neck
- Cranium is triangular in form, and is wider than it’s lengthy
- Herbivorous
- In all probability not a choosy eater
- Had a drooping snout and a beak to chunk off vegetation
- Dropping snout is blunt, vast, and excessive
- Has 19 to 24 enamel in every higher jaw
- Decrease jaw had 21 enamel
- Might pull its decrease jaw backwards
- Head and physique coated in bony armor of osteoderms
- Neck had two bone rings referred to as “cervical half rings” that protected it. Victoria Arbour and others thought they fashioned a decrease layer, might with ossified cartilage
- Cervical half ring was a number of bony plates fused collectively in an arch-shaped block
- Had bony armor plates, with rows of oval scutes
- Kenneth Carpenter described the armor in 1982, but it surely was primarily based on the specimen now generally known as the holotype of Scolosaurus, so not precisely the identical for Euoplocephalus
- Victoria Arbour mentioned in 2013 that no Euoplocephalus specimen has in situ osteoderms, so the arrangment of osteoderms is unknown
- Armor was made from small scutes (diameter lower than 5 mm), and should have fashioned bands (if it was the identical as Scolosaurus). Could have had a sacral protect, made up of 4 of those bands. These bands had horizontal rows of bigger oval, flat scutes
- Scutes assorted in dimension on its physique. Largest, tallest scutes might have been on the shoulder, might have had giant keeled plates on the higher arms
- Previous restorations depicted the membership with two giant spikes, primarily based on a restoration of Scolosaurus by Franz Nopsca (he primarily based it on a specimen with an incomplete tail)
- Armor might have helped with safety and thermoregulation
- Victoria Arbour and others discovered an intact Euoplocephalus cranium in southern Alberta, and it’s on the Royal Tyrrell Museum for research
- Armor on the cranium had caputegulae (head tiles) that fused with cranium components. Snout appears like a mosaic
- Had two pyramid-shaped squamosal horns that grew from the again of its head
- Additionally had a quadratojugal horn on the decrease rear of the cranium
- Additionally had bones over the eyes which will have helped shield them
- Had small eyes
- Had a great sense of odor, although the olfactory a part of the mind was not that enormous
- Has two exterior nostrils on either side
- Had very advanced air passages and sinuses
- In 2018, Jason Bourke and others discovered that Euoplocephalus and Panoplosaurus used CT scanning and computational fluid dynamics to simulate how air moved via their loopy nasal passages. They discovered that their noses might heat and funky air it breathed in (helped settle down the mind)
- Nasal passages might have moistened the air that it breathes in
- Nasal passages appeared form of like loopy straws
- The nasal passages in Euoplocephalus have been virtually twice so long as the cranium
- The group additionally reconstructed blood vessels primarily based on bony grooves and canals and located a wealthy blood provide operating subsequent to the nasal passage. Ruger Porter, who labored on the research, mentioned “Scorching blood from the physique core would journey via these blood vessels and switch their warmth to the incoming air. Concurrently, evaporation of moisture within the lengthy nasal passages cooled the venous blood destined for the mind”
- Massive dimension of Euoplocephalus was good at preserving heat, however not for cooling off (threat of overheating, espceially the mind tissue)
- Nasal passages have been looped and complicated, probably for vocal resonance or to stability warmth and water
- Additionally had a big, vascularized chamber in the back of the nasal tract, which can have helped enhance its sense of odor
- Might in all probability hear low frequencies, probably to listen to the low sounds from the nasal passages
- Had a heavy club-like tail
- Tail was like a hammer
- Had an extended tail with a bony membership
- In all probability held its tail simply above the bottom
- In all probability swung the tail low (base of the tail was versatile, then the membership was inflexible), and should have used the membership tail for protection or fight between themselves
- Could have been a solitary animal
- Could have mated the best way cats mate, primarily based on Kenneth Carpenter’s e book in 2000 about dinosaur replica. He wrote {that a} frequent technique “is likely to be for the feminine to squat on her forelimbs, elevating her rear to the air (form of like a home cat”
- Just one species: Euoplocephalus tutus
- Lawrence Lambe discovered the primary fossil in August 1897 in what’s now Dinosaur Provincial Park, in Alberta, Canada
- In 1902 the fossil was named the holotype of Stereocephalus tutus (had a part of the skull and 5 scutes that have been a part of a cervical half ring)
- Genus title Stereocephalus means “strong head” and refers to its armor
- Nonetheless, the title was already used for the beetle Stereocephalus in 1884, so the dinosaur was renamed Euoplocephalus in 1910 (means “properly armed head”)
- Species title means “safely protected” in Latin
- In 1915, Edwin Hennig reclassified Euoplocephalus as Palaeoscincus, however now Palaeoscincus is consered to be a nomen dubium (solely primarily based on indeterminate ankylosaur enamel)
- In 1964, Oskar Kuhn referred Euoplocephalus to Ankylosaurus
- Plenty of ankylosaurid fossils present in North America within the 1900s have been named new genera. In 1971 Walter Coombs reclassified many as Euoplocephalus (he synonymized Anodontosaurus, Dyoplosaurus, and Scolosaurus with Euoplocephalus), which made 40 specimens Euoplocephalus and meant Euoplocephalus spanned about 10 million years, and the most effective recognized ankylosaurid
- In 1978 Coombs additionally renamed Tarchia as Euoplocephalus giganteus
- Walter Coombs and Teresa Maryanska mentioned in 1990 that Euoplocephalus has 4 distinguishing traits: premaxillae doesn’t have dermal ossifications, the bony nostrils are slit-like, the beak is a minimum of as vast as the gap between the rear maxillary, higher cheek, enamel rows, and there are three toes on every foot
- Then in 2009 scientists discovered Dyoplosaurus to be a legitimate taxon (had triangular claws)
- In 2010 Victoria Arbour mentioned Anodontosaurus was a legitimate taxon (totally different cranium and certical ring ornamentation, and had pointed, triangular knob osteoderms)
- Paul Penkalski and William Blows mentioned in 2013 Scolosaurus was a legitimate taxon
- One other research by Penkalski in 2013 named and described Oohkotokia primarily based on fossils initially considered Euoplocephalus
- In 2013 Arbour mentioned that Scolosaurus cutleri, Anodontosaurus lambei, Dyoplosaurus acutosquamens, and Euoplocephalus tutus have been all legitimate, and Euoplocephalus lasted about 2 million years
- Victoria Arbour and Phil Currie present in 2013 that Euoplocephalus doesn’t have spherical osteoderms on the primarily based of the horns in the back of the top, it has sacral ribs that perpendicularly level outwards, had keeled osteoderms with a spherical or oval base
- Can see Euoplocephalus on the Corridor of Fossils, on the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past in Washington, D.C.
Enjoyable Reality: It took about a million years for animal life within the Antarctic sea to get better after the Chicxulub affect.