Episode 523: Prime 24 Dinosaur Discoveries of 2024. An enormous 12 months for stegosaurs and theropods!
Our Picks for the Greatest Discoveries of the Yr:
- Greatest new tyrannosaur: Asiatyrannus supply
- Greatest new tyrannosaur (runner up): Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis supply
- Greatest new titanosaur: Bustingorrytitan supply
- Greatest new titanosaur (runner up): Qunkasaura supply
- Greatest new ankylosaur: Datai supply
- Greatest new abelisaur: Koleken supply
- Greatest new ceratopsian: Lokiceratops supply
- Greatest new (perhaps) burrowing dinosaur: Fona supply
- Greatest new ornithopod (most full present in UK in 100 years): Comptonatus supply
- Greatest new theropod forehead: Alpkarakush supply
- Greatest sauropod vertebra (and greatest rebbachisaurid): Sidersaura supply
- Greatest new rebbachisaurid (runner up): Campananeyen supply
- Greatest noasaurid theropod: Kiyacursor supply
- Greatest new caenagnathid: Eoneophron supply
- Greatest new sleeping dinosaur: Hypnovenator supply
- Most basal rhabdodontomorph ornithopod: Emiliasaura supply
- Greatest new silesaurid: Gondwanax supply
- Most expanded dinosaur group: Stegosauria. Together with:
- Coolest discovery story: Musankwa supply
- Most tenacious fossil: Ardetosaurus supply
- Most enjoyable new Mesozoic fowl: Shuilingornis supply
- Greatest fowl names: Avisaurus (“fowl lizard”) and Magnusavis (“large fowl”) supply
- Quickest title change: “Jingjia” renamed Jingiella supply
- Garret’s favourite Dinosaur Connection Problem: bubonic plague supply
- Greatest paleopathology research: South American theropods supply
- Greatest paleopathology research (runner up): Plateosaurus supply
- Oldest identified paleontology (perhaps): 10,000 12 months outdated petroglyphs supply
- Greatest pleasant sauropodomorph research: Lufengosaurus supply
- Greatest new spinosaurid: Riojavenatrix supply
- Spinosaur diving and searching/swimming replace supply
- Spinosaur cranium shapes supply
- Spinosaurs had cranium and tooth to go after giant prey supply
- Greatest new tyrannosaur paper: Gorgosaurus intestine contents supply
- Nanotyrannus replace supply
- T. rex intelligence estimation supply
Sponsors:
The dinosaur of the day: Yinlong
- Ceratopsian that lived within the Late Jurassic in what’s now Xinjiang, China, about 161 to 155 million years in the past (Shishugou Formation)
- One of many earliest identified ceratopsians
- First unquestionable Jurassic ceratopsian species
- Talked about briefly in our milestone episode 450, Celebration of Ceratopsians
- Small, about 3.9 ft (1.2 m) lengthy and weighed as much as 22 lb (10 kg)
- Additionally most likely walked on two legs, and had shorter arms and lengthy legs
- Arms have been lower than 40% the size of the legs
- Had lengthy, sturdy legs and shorter, extra slender arms, with three fingers on every hand
- Had a deep, broad cranium
- Cranium was proportionally bigger relative to its physique (bigger than most ornithischians however smaller than different ceratopsians)
- Didn’t have a frill and didn’t actually have horns
- One other ceratopsian that lived across the similar time and in addition didn’t have horns is Hualianceratops (named in 2015)
- Had a small rostral bone on the finish of the higher jaw (beak on the tip of the snout), which makes it a ceratopsian
- Kind species is Yinlong downsi
- Genus title means “hidden dragon”, and refers back to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Numerous the film was filmed in Xinjiang, close to the place the fossils have been discovered
- Species title is in honor of the paleontologist William Randall Downs III, who usually took half in paleontology expeditions to China and who handed away the 12 months earlier than Yinlong was discovered
- Fossils present in 2004
- Named in 2006 by Xu Xing and others
- Holotype is nicely preserved and features a cranium
- Holotype solely lacking a part of the tail
- Holotype might be a subadult based mostly on some openings on the vertebrae
- Seven gastroliths discovered with the holotype
- Gastroliths have been about 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter (0.4 to 0.6 in) and have been uncovered throughout the ribcage, and have been proportionally giant relative to the dinosaur’s physique dimension
- Would have swallowed gastroliths to assist digest vegetation
- Had a mixture of options, resembling ornamentation in the back of its cranium, which earlier than was regarded as solely on pachycephalosaurs
- Aspect word: ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs are a part of the identical clade of ornithischians, referred to as Marginocephalia
- Helps present that pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians are a part of the group Marginocephalia
- Helps present that later ceratopsians misplaced plenty of marginocephalian options and developed their very own options early on
- Additionally has options within the cranium much like heterodontosaurids, which helps present heterodontosaurids are shut family of marginocephalians. Nonetheless, later research didn’t help this
- Though a 2020 research discovered heterodontosaurids to be a bunch inside pachycephalosaurs
- Helps present ceratopsians developed the beak and huge, triangular head early on, however didn’t evolve the frill and huge our bodies that required strolling on all fours till the Early Cretaceous
- A 2015 research of the cranium and jaws discovered Yinlong had plenty of options in frequent with Psittacosaurus and neoceratopsians (which embody Triceratops)
- One small specimen additionally had a canine-shaped tooth within the premaxilla (entrance of the jaw), which could possibly be sexual dimorphism or particular person variation
- A 2017 research of 9 skeletons of Yinlong, all well-preserved, discovered extra options that have been distinctive to ceratopsians, like particulars within the hips, particularly a blade-like prepubic course of (bony extension that extends ahead from the hip socket towards the entrance of the animal)
- Lived on marshland, close to a small mountain vary with volcanoes
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the similar time and place embody the ceratopsian Hualianceratops, the stegosaurid Jiangjunosaurus, sauropods resembling Mamenchisaurus, theropods together with the toothless Limusaurus and tyrannosauroid Guanlong
- Different animals that lived across the similar time and place embody pterosaurs, crocodylomorphs, early mammals, and turtles
Our favourite enjoyable details of the 12 months:
The primary dinosaurs had some tooth, whereas later dinosaurs ranged from 1000+ tooth to no tooth in any respect (Episode 487).
Protoceratops might not be the inspiration behind the griffin (Episode 504).
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