Episode 459: Past Bones: Respiration, Tendons, and Lips. New proof of lips on T. rex, sauropod air sacs, blood vessels in Edmontosaurus, and extra dinosaur tender tissues.
Information:
- Air sacs had been invading sauropod bones in a number of methods within the Triassic—sooner than beforehand thought supply
- A brand new technique to find out if scars on bones are from tendon attachments or air sac contact supply
- Ossified tendons aren’t all fully ossified, a few of them nonetheless have tender tissue in them supply
- Delicate tissue performs a vital position in how animals breathe, scent, regulate their physique temperature, talk, and extra supply
The dinosaur of the day: Titanosaurus
- Doubtful titanosaurian sauropod that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now India (Lameta Formation)
- Sauropod, so walked on all fours, had an extended neck and small head
- Neck was thick and tail was brief
- Unclear how giant Titanosaurus was (doubtful, plus not many fossils discovered to start with)
- Kind species is Titanosaurus indicus
- Genus identify means “titanic lizard”
- Named after the mythological Titans, the pre-Olympian gods in Greek mythology (12 of them)
- Described by Richard Lydekker in 1877
- First dinosaur from India to be named and formally described
- Titanosaurus named based mostly on a partial femur (leg bone) and two incomplete tail vertebrae
- Titanosaurus named for particulars within the tail vertebrae
- Second species, Titanosaurus blanfordi was named in 1879 by Richard Lydekker
- Titanosaurus blanfordi was named based mostly on a tail vertebrae discovered between 1860 and 1870 by William Blanford
- 14 species have been named Titanosaurus (in Argentina, Europe, Madagascar, India, and Laos, and spanning 60 million years)
- Later Titanosaurus species named based mostly on fossils present in Argentina and Madagascar by 1896, which led to the concept titanosaurs had been Gondwanan
- Holotype vertebrae present in 1828 by Captain William Henry Sleeman of the East India Firm military
- Discovered the fossils on Bara Simla Hill, close to the Gun Carriage Manufacturing unit, whereas searching for petrified wooden
- Sleeman found the fossils simply 4 years after Megalosaurus was named, in 1824, and 14 years earlier than Owen coined the time period Dinosauria, in 1842
- Sleeman wrote “I made the primary discovery of fossil stays within the Nerbudda valley. I went first to a hill within reach of my home in 1828, and searched precisely between the plateau of basalt that lined it, and the stratum instantly beneath; and there I discovered a number of small timber with roots, trunks, and branches, all whole, and fantastically petrified. That they had been solely not too long ago uncovered by the washing away of part of the basaltic plateau. I quickly after discovered some fossil bones of animals”
- Took over 50 years for Titanosaurus to get named
- Sleeman gave two items to G. G. Spilsbury, a surgeon, who additionally excavated a 3rd bone, after which despatched the fossils in 1832 to vintage vendor James Prinsep in Calcutta, who discovered they had been fossils and despatched them again to Sleeman
- By 1862, Hugh Falconer, superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, had the vertebrae, and he thought it was reptilian so he took measurements and illustrated them
- Medlicott discovered a fragmentary leg bone (femur) in 1871 from the identical space the vertebrae had been discovered
- After Falconer died, Lydekker described them as Titanosaurus indicus
- Lydekker knew it was a dinosaur and stated there have been distinctive options within the tail vertebrae however not within the femur. He wrote “If the femur had been discovered alone, I ought to have referred it to the genus Cetiosaurus, however the vertebrae forbid this view”
- The femur and vertebrae got here from the identical place however not from the identical layer/stratigraphic stage. Due to this, in 1933 Friedrich von Huene and Charles Matley referred the femur to Antarctosaurus, a titanosaur present in Argentina
- Why had been fossils present in India referred to a dinosaur genus from South America?
- On the time, the opposite fossils present in India couldn’t be in contrast with Titanosaurus indicus however they’d a number of issues in frequent with Antarctosaurus. Additionally, Lydekker had set a precedent for linking dinosaurs throughout Gondwana when he recognized Titanosaurus species in Madagascar and South America
- And Huene thought there was a land bridge within the Cretaceous between South America and southeastern Asia
- After Huene and Matley in 1933, took greater than 50 years till the following discovery of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs in India (abelisaurid and titanosaur skeletons and eggs and nest websites, present in 1981)
- In 2003 Jeffrey Wilson and Paul Upchurch re-evaluated Titanosaurus (and all 14 species)
- Titanosaurus was a wastebasket taxon for some time, for titanosaurs present in Europe, South America, and different elements of Asia
- Discovered Titanosaurus indicus to be invalid “as a result of it’s based mostly on ‘obsolescent’ characters—as soon as diagnostic options which have gained a broader taxonomic distribution over time”
- Means these options considered distinctive to Titanosaurus are present in different titanosaurs
- Discovered that the group Titanosauria was nonetheless legitimate although
- To his credit score, when Lydekker named the 2 species of Titanosaurus, solely 115 dinosaur species had been named
- Since Titanosaurus, a lot of titanosaurs and non-titanosaurs have been discovered with the identical options within the tail vertebrae as Titanosaurus (consists of diplodocoids and Mamenchisaurus)
- A few of these options are distinctive to Titanosauria and others present in different sauropod lineages
- Former species embrace rahioliensis (based mostly on enamel, now considered an indeterminate neosauropod), colberti (now Isisaurus), australis (now Neuquensaurus), nanus (one other nomen dubium), robustus (now Neuquensaurus), madagascariensis, falloti (too fragmentary to know), valdensis (now a nomen dubium) lydekkeri (unclear), and dacus (now Magyarosaurus)
- Wilson and Upchurch wrote that “Historical past has stripped Titanosaurus of its uniqueness by means of obsolescence of the characters initially used to outline it”
- Charles Matley collected extra sauropod bones between 1917 and 1919, in the identical space the place Titanosaurus indicus fossils had been discovered however in a distinct layer. They had been discovered “washed about and considerably broken and damaged earlier than fossilization”
- Additionally discovered fragmentary bones in 1920 within the kind locality of Titanosaurus blanfordi
- Fossils had been assigned to Titanosaurus indicus, Titanosaurus blanfordi, ?Antarctosaurus sp., Laplatasaurus madagascariensis, and an indeterminate sauropod
- 4 braincases as soon as attributed to Titanosaurus indicus had been discovered in several localities in India, and one was from Bara Simla (the place the primary Titanosaurus fossils had been discovered), supposedly discovered with some skeletal fossils however these weren’t mapped or described
- Sufficient variations within the braincases that there have been most likely two sauropod taxa, and so they had been informally referred to “Antarctosaurus” and “Titanosaurus” morphs
- Sadly, no detailed subject information and fossils from Bara Simla will not be effectively preserved, which implies the fossils discovered there are complicated and controversial relating to which dinosaurs they belong to
- In 1997, Jain and Bandyopadhyay stated “Antarctosaurus” septentrionalis was a junior synonym of Titanosaurus indicus as a result of there weren’t any massive variations between the 2
- Nonetheless, Wilson and Upchurch stated that as a result of the fossils got here from Bara Simla, which “is a poor pattern from which to find out variation”, and that naming all fossils discovered at Bara Simla as one species will “not solely create a doubtlessly unnatural assemblage, it additionally forces future discoveries of presently unknown parts to be referred to it”
- Wilson and Upchurch additionally discovered that Titanosaurus blanfordi was not legitimate, as a result of the options on its tail vertebrae that Lydekker described are options that will range amongst sauropods (particular person variation) and might’t be a diagnostic function
- Titanosaurus rahioliensis was named based mostly on enamel, which was not sufficient
- Fossils present in Madagascar, together with the primary report of dermal armor in a sauropod, had been referred to Titanosaurus madagascariensis
- The dermal armor isn’t a part of the holotype
- Discovered Titanosaurus madagascariensis to be nomen dubium, till it’s additional studied (fossils embrace tail vertebrae, a part of an arm and the dermal ossification, although Dep’eret when he described the fossils in 1896 wrote “I consult with the identical animal, however with out absolute certainty, a big dermal ossification”, although the fossils had been discovered in several localities). Earlier research had discovered it to be Laplatasaurus, however Wilson and Upchurch stated comparisons are restricted
- Titanosaurus lydekkeri solely identified from a tail vertebra, and solely comprehend it belongs to a titanosaur
- Laplatasaurus was completely different from Titanosaurus as a result of it was bigger with extra slender proportions
- Titanosaurus colberti was named based mostly on a partial skeleton together with a part of the pelvis and forelimb
- Discovered Titanosaurus colberti to be a legitimate species however gave it a brand new identify: Isisaurus
- Wilson and Upchurch discovered that of the 14 Titanosaurus species, solely 5 had been legitimate, and 4 of them had been renamed (Neuquensaurus, Magyarosaurus, Laplatasaurus, and Isisaurus). However, additionally they talked about “Titanosaurus” sp.
- Although the paper stated Titanosaurus is a nomen dubium, they nonetheless contemplate one species, kind of (sp. means not recognized on the species stage or not associated to different identified species)
- Additionally the unique Titanosaurus indicus and blanfordi fossils went lacking for a few years
- Unclear when precisely they went lacking
- However Dhananjay Mohabey discovered the fossils had been solely misplaced as a result of there was no good stock of the collections, so he began a research to seek out them, and in 2012, he and Subhasis Sengupta discovered the holotype vertebra of Titanosaurus indicus (in a batch of fossils Lydekker left behind in 1878, which is why it didn’t have an official stock quantity), and likewise discovered the vertebrae of Titanosaurus blanfordi
- Titanosaurs had been very numerous and located everywhere in the world, on all seven continents
- They lived till the tip of the Cretaceous
- Group consists of a number of the largest land animals, like Patagotitan (estimated to be 121 ft or 37 m lengthy and weigh 76 tons)
- Not all had been giant, like Magyarosaurus that weighed about 1 ton
- Titanosaurs had huge chests, and the “wide-legged” stance, and stocky forelimbs that had been typically longer than the hind limbs
- Not many titanosaur skulls discovered, based mostly on ones discovered, skulls had been small
- Some titanosaurs, like Saltasaurus, had osteoderms
- Titanosaur eggs have been discovered, which embrace embryos and protect pores and skin (tender tissues!)
- Earlier this 12 months, in 2023, a bunch of titanosaur eggs had been present in India (talked about in episode 430)
- From about 70 million years in the past
- Nests packed tightly collectively, so seemingly the titanosaurs didn’t stick round to care for their younger (if they’d, could have trampled the nests)
- A 2015 research discovered embryonic pores and skin from titanosaur eggs present in Patagonia, Argentina, and located scale patterns that had been just like the patterns of osteoderms on Saltasaurus
- Additionally to connect with the tender tissues on this episode, titanosaurs had air sacs
- Tito Aureliano and others printed a research in 2021 (talked about in episode 386) about air sacs in a saltasaurid titanosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Brazil (had the pneumosteal bone)
- Titanosaurus the dinosaur is to not be confused with the kaiju Titanosaurus (Japanese time period and a subgenre of science fiction about large monsters—like Godzilla)
- The kaiju Titanosaurus appeared within the 1975 movie Terror of Mechagodzilla
- Within the film, a mad scientist Shinzo Mafune discovers the Titanosaurus and says he can management its thoughts (folks assume he’s insane and he loses all credibility)
- He does management the Titanosaurus and will get his revenge (earlier than he controls the Titanosaurus, Titanosaurus was peaceable)
- Within the film, Titanosaurus is 196 ft (60 m) tall and weighs over 30,000 tons
- Designed to seem like a spinosaur (and is aquatic), and has a crocodile-like snout, a sail-like fin, and roars
- Additionally stands on two legs and tail drags
- However does have an extended neck
- Colours are purple, yellow, and black, with a beige stomach
- Can use its tail as a fan to create winds robust sufficient to destroy buildings, or create whirlpools in water
- Good swimmer and might stroll on land too
- (spoilers) Will get defeated by Godzilla
Enjoyable Truth:
T. rex seemingly lined its enamel in giant lips and it most likely didn’t have the muscle mass to reveal its enamel.
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