Episode 298 is all about Scolosaurus, an ankylosaurid with a big spherical membership that’s on show on the Pure Historical past Museum in London.
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On this episode, we focus on:
Information:
- Trierarchuncus prairiensis, a brand new alvarezsaurid was named for its curved claws supply
- A Guinness World Document was awarded to a Japanese fossil for being the world’s smallest non-avian dinosaur egg supply
- Taiwan Nationwide Museum now has AR dinosaur excursions. supply
- The Discipline Museum at Chicago within the U.S. has a brand new lifelike mannequin of Sue the T. rex nicknamed “Fleshy” supply
- Brookfield Zoo has an exhibit till November 1st named Dinos In all places supply
- Somebody representing Sue in an inflatable T. rex costume visited penguins on the close by Shedd Aquarium supply
- A letter from Mary Anning offered for over 100,000 kilos supply
- Sir Richard Owen’s hometown of Lancaster, UK celebrated dinosaur day supply
- Iggy the metallic dinosaur sculpture is again on show in Maidstone, UK supply
The dinosaur of the day: Scolosaurus
- Ankylosaurid that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation / Oldman Formation, precise locality is unsure)
- Herbivorous
- Estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) lengthy
- Had a whole lot of osteoderms and a clubbed tail
- Osteoderms have been principally conical, subconical, or mammillary in form (nipple formed)
- Texture of osteoderms have been tough and pointy
- Found in 1914 by fossil collector William Edmund Cutler, in fine-grained sandstone and claystone sediments
- Named in 1928 by Franz Nopcsa
- Holotype included a virtually full skeleton (lacking the top of the tail, proper forelimb, proper hindlimb, and cranium)
- Additionally included osteoderms and pores and skin impressions
- Holotype is within the collections of the Pure Historical past Museum in London
- Genus title means “pointed stake lizard”
- Species title is in honor of Cutler, who was injured when the fossils fell on him whereas he was excavating
- In 1971, Walter Coombs synonymized Scolosaurus, together with Anodontosaurus lambei and Dyloplosaurus acutosquameus with Euoplocephalus tutus, however didn’t actually clarify why. He wrote it was based mostly on “the quite a few ankylosaurid skulls recognized from the Oldman Formation [now Dinosaur Park Formation] and Member E, the Edmonton Formation [now Horseshoe Canyon Formation]”
- Coombs stated there was just one genera of ankylosaurid that lived in that point and place, and Euoplocephalus was named first (although the holotype was fragmentary)
- At first, this synonymization was accepted and Scolosaurus cutleri grew to become Euoplocephalus cutleri
- In 2013, Paul Penkalski and William Blows resdescribed Scolosaurus and located it to be a legitimate taxon
- Penkalski and Blows discovered that Scolosaurus had totally different cervical (neck) armor and the construction of the forelimb was totally different from Euoplocephalus, and so they additionally discovered variations within the pelvis and armor between Scolosaurus and Dyloplosaurus
- As a result of the holotype is so full, many reconstructions for Euoplocephalus have been based mostly on the Scolosaurus specimen (particularly the armor patterns, that are based mostly on the osteoderms present in situ on the Scolosaurus holotype)
- Arbour and Currie discovered that Scolosaurus was distinctive due to quite a lot of options together with the squamosal horns (again of the pinnacle) have been proportionately bigger, backswept, and had distinct apices (peaks); the caputegula (cranium armor) had a singular sample; there have been conical osteoderms on the tail, there have been giant, round osteoderms with low central prominences (didn’t stick out a lot) and compressed, half-moon formed lateral (on the facet) osteoderms on the cervical (neck) half rings; and the knob on the finish of its tail seemed round from above
- Primarily based on the humerus and different bones, Scolosaurus was as giant or bigger than Euoplocephalus and different ankylosaurids from the identical area/time
- Pedal unguals (claws on the ft) have been hoof formed, in comparison with Dyoplosaurus which was triangular
- A number of referred Scolosaurus specimens, which embody cranium, vertebrae, ribs, femora, tibiae, fibulae, and extra
- Arbour and Currie additionally assigned one other specimen, USNM 7943, to Scolosaurus (a partial cervical ring present in 1874 within the Frenchman Formation in Alberta), which is now housed on the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
- One other specimen, USNM 11892 was present in 1928 in Two Drugs Formation, a partial cranium, and can also be on the Smithsonian
- Scolosaurus specimens discovered principally in Two Drugs Formation in Montana
- One other specimen (MOR 433), previously referred to as Oohkotokia (O-OH-ko-toke-ee-uh), was reassigned to Scolosaurus in 2013 by Victoria Arbour and Phil Currie (Penkalski had named Oohkotokia earlier in 2013). Not everybody agrees
- Specimens coming from Oldman/Dinosaur Park and Two Drugs Formations is why not everybody agrees Scolosaurus and Oohkotokia are synonymous. Nonetheless, the Oldman Formation throughout when Scolosaurus lived was fairly dry in comparison with the Dinosaur Park Formation as a result of the Western Inside Seaway had regressed thus far. The Higher Two Drugs Formation additionally had a dry atmosphere in comparison with Judith River Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation, that are close by. Would want cranium materials to verify if they’re synonymous or not, in any other case they appear related
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the similar time and place included hadrosaurs Hypacrosaurus, Gryposaurus, Maiasaura, ankylosaur Edmontonia, oviraptorosaurs Caenagnathus and Chirostenotes, ornithopods like Orodromeus, ceratopsians Brachyceratops, Prenoceratops, and Rubeosaurus, and dromaeosaurs Bambiraptor and Saurornitholestes, and tyrannosaurids Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus
- Additionally a number of fish, akin to sharks, rays, sturgeons, gars, and amphibians, reptiles, lizards, crocodilians, pterosaurs, birds, and a few mammals
Enjoyable Reality:
Alvarezsaurs have fairly a bit in widespread with fashionable termite consuming specialists.