I Know Dino Podcast: Anzu wyliei

Episode 17 is all about Anzu wyliei, nicknamed “the rooster from hell.”

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On this episode, we talk about:

The dinosaur of the day: Anzu wyliei, which is the identify of a feathered Mesopotamian demon
The wyliei identify comes from a boy named Wylie, a dinosaur fanatic and grandson of a Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh trustee

Dr. Matthew Lamanna from the Carnegie Museum of Pure Historical past and Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues and Dr. Tyler Lyson from the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past, and Dr. Emma Schachner from the College of Utah all studied Anzu
Dr. Tyler Lyson first discovered the bones of the third Anzu skeleton when he was a teen (on his uncle’s ranch in North Dakota)
Scientists discovered partial fossils of three skeletons in North and South Dakota, within the Hell Creek formation (fashioned on the finish of the Cretaceous, and recognized for its T-rex and Triceratops fossils)

Anzu lived on a moist floodplain
Anzu was bird-like, with a bony crest on prime of head and a protracted tail
Anzu had a tall, skinny crest; massive beak, sliding jaw joint (might have been used to eat crops and meat)

Anzu was concerning the measurement of a small automotive, with claws and feathers on its higher arms (a cross between an emu and a contemporary reptile)
Anzu was 11 toes lengthy, 5 toes tall on the hip, and weighed 440 to 660 kilos
It had a toothless beak, and the crest on its head is just like a cassowary

Most likely had feathers
Due to Anzu, paleontologists now know for positive that Anzu, Caenagnathus, and Chriostenotes are their very own group in Oviraptorosauria, and that Gigantoraptor (the most important oviraptorosaur recognized, weighing 1.5 tons) additionally belongs to the Caenagnathidae group (some on this group are small, turkey-sized, however they’re very various group)
Although Anzu’s head is unusual trying, its physique is just like Velociraptor, which lived just a few million years earlier

Anzu appears to have gotten plenty of accidents. Two of the three Anzu specimens have accidents, one with a damaged and healed rib, the opposite with an arthritic toe bone attributable to a fracture the place a tendon ripped off a chunk of bone). It’s unclear whether or not Anzu fought amongst themselves or towards bigger predators, like T-rex
In line with Dr. Sues and his workforce, although local weather change might have contributed to dinosaurs going extinct, Anzu proves that dinosaurs have been nonetheless evolving and have been various even on the finish. This helps show it was the aestroid that killed dinosaurs
The three Anzu skeletons are within the Carnegie Museum of Pure Historical past in Pittsburgh (they helped determine Anzu)

Anzu is an Oviraptorosaur, whose identify comes from the primary skeleton present in 1924 that was on prime a dinosaur egg nest, and scientists thought it was stealing the eggs. However within the Nineteen Nineties, a child oviraptorid egg was discovered inside a nest, which confirmed Oviraptorosaur was a superb father or mother simply defending its eggs
Caenagnathids, oviraptorids, and different species from China are carefully associated, so paleontologists grouped them within the theropod group Oviraptorosauria
The identify Caenagnathus means “latest jaws.” The primary caenagnathids discovered have been considered shut family of birds like ostriches as a result of that they had related decrease jaws. However now scientists assume this similarity advanced convergently with fashionable birds

The Caenagnathidae household, together with the household Oviraptoridae, is a part of the superfamily Caenagnathoidea
Caenagnathids are similar to Oviraptoridae, however they’ve distinct jaws (lengthy and shallow, not as highly effective a chunk). The decrease jaws additionally had ridges and shelf-like constructions (crushing floor), they usually have been hole and air crammed as a part of an air sac system. Caenagnathids are additionally lighter than Oviraptorids, with slender arms and lengthy legs
One other distinction between caenagnathids and oviraptorids is that caenagnathids tended to reside in humid floodplains, and oviraptorids lived in arid areas

There are about 12 named caenagnathid species, however not all could also be legitimate (some named from fragments of skeletons)
Enjoyable truth: Dinosaur eggs are present in many various sizes and shapes. Most are spherical, and a few may be virtually 1 foot lengthy, although the smallest discovered to date is just about 1 inch lengthy. Fossilized eggs are laborious like rocks, however they keep their constructions.

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