Episode 302: A child unicorn sauropod

Episode 302 is all about Monoclonius, a relative of Styracosaurus with a big nasal horn—generally thought of synonymous with Centrosaurus.

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On this episode, we talk about:

Information:

• “The primary 3D preserved embryonic cranium of a sauropod” was described and features a horn on its higher lip supply
• In Wales, there are footprints with “squelch marks” which may be dinosaur footprints. supply
• A graphics scholar sculpted a Velociraptor that shall be on everlasting show at Radford College Museum of the Earth Sciences supply
• The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas will quickly be a state and federal fossil repository supply
• Now you can get 4 new Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous dinosaurs in joyful meals supply
• Jurassic World: Dominion will embody “a stunning faction of prehistoric creatures that you just’ve by no means seen earlier than” supply

The dinosaur of the day: Monoclonius

• Ceratopsian that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Montana, US (Judith River Formation), and Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation)
• Doubtful genus, perhaps, and a Bone Wars dinosaur
• Numerous confusion/debate round Monoclonius and Centrosaurus
• Named in 1876 by Edward Drinker Cope
• Discovered fossils with Charles Sternberg in 1876 in Chouteau County Montana, about 100 mi (150 km) from the location of Battle of the Little Bighorn, which occurred that June. Discovered in several areas, and located most components (solely the toes have been lacking fully), together with the bottom of the nasal horn, a part of the cranium frill, forehead horns, vertebrae, sacrum, shoulder girdle, thighbones, shinbone, fibula, elements of the forelimb, and extra
• Cope described and named his discover two weeks after leaving Montana, October 1876
• Ceratopsians weren’t but a definite group, so Cope didn’t know a lot in regards to the fossils discovered (just like the nasal horn, brown horns, he thought the frill was a part of the breastbone)
• Cope thought Monoclonius was a hadrosaur
• After Marsh described Triceratops in 1889, Cope checked out Monoclonius and decided that Triceratops, Monoclonius, and Agathaumas have been are an identical group of dinosaurs. (Cope additionally named Agathaumas and Polyonax)
• Cope wrote in 1889, The Horned Dinosauria of the Laramie” about one of the vital full skeletons in his assortment, Monoclonius crassus. Some proof of the Bone Wars: “This household is known as by Marsh the Ceratopsidae; however as it isn’t sure that Ceratops, Marsh, is distinct from one of many genera beforehand named, I shall name it the Agathaumantidae, from the longest identified genus, Agathaumas.”
• He redescribed Monoclonius as having a big nasal horn, two forehead horns over the eyes, and a big frill, after which he named three extra Monoclonius species: Monoclonius recurvicornis (“with a recurved horn”, primarily based on a specimen with a brief, curved nasal horncore), Monoclonius sphenocerus (“wedge-horned” primarily based on a specimen Sternberg present in 1876 on Cow Island in Missouri that had an extended nasal horn), and Monoclonius fissus (“the cut up one” primarily based on a specimen that Cope thought had a cut up squamosal, however turned out the squamosal was a pterygoid, or jaw bone)
• Cope wrote that Monoclonius sphenocerus has many skeletal elements, together with elements of the cranium, discovered by Charles H. Stenberg in 1876 on the Missouri River, close to Cow Island. “The Monoclonius sphenocerus is an animal of huge measurement, exceeding the rhinoceros in peak, and the nasal horn is essentially the most formidable weapon I’ve noticed in a reptile”
• Monoclonius used to have many species assigned to it (16?), and now there’s just one (and it’s doubtful). The others have been reassigned (Chasmosaurus, Eoceratops, and so forth.)
• After Cope and Marsh died, John Bell Hatcher labored on ending Cope’s Ceratopsia monograph. He didn’t like Cope’s strategies, and located that the sort specimen of Monoclonius crassus was a composite and due to this fact a bunch of syntypes, so he selected one as a lectotype
• Charles H. Sternberg discovered extra specimens, and Lawrence Lambe discovered Centrosaurus to be distinct from Monoclonius. Then Barnum Brown in 1914 discovered there was just one legitimate species that Cope named (there have been different species named by different scientists): Monoclonius crassus, after which he in contrast Monoclonius with Centrosaurus and located the 2 have been synonymous. Then he named one other species, Monoclonius flexus (“the curved one”) primarily based on a cranium present in 1912 with a ahead curving nasal horn. Lawrence Lambe responded in 1915 saying Monoclonius dawsoni was Brachyceratops, Monoclonius sphenocerus was Styracosaurus, and Monoclonius crassus was not distinct sufficient (lectotype was too broken and had no nasal horn), and he referred Brown’s Monoclonius flexus to Centrosaurus apertus. In 1917 Brown named Monoclonius nasicornus (“with the nostril horn”) and Monoclonius cutleri, primarily based on a skeleton with pores and skin impressions however no cranium
• Numerous debate, then Richard Swan Lull revealed “Revision of the Ceratopsia” in 1933, the place he mentioned Centrosaurus was a junior synonym of Monoclonius however nonetheless its personal species (Monoclonius apertus as an alternative of Centrosaurus apertus). Charles M. Sternberg (Charles H. Sternberg’s son) mentioned in 1938 there have been Monoclonius-types in Alberta. In 1940 he named Monoclonius lowei, in honor of his discipline assistant Harold D’acre Robinson Lowe who labored with him throughout six discipline seasons
• Charles M. Sternberg wrote about Monoclonius in 1938, about how Monoclonius was distinct from Centrosaurus due to the form and proportion of its horn cores. Brown thought Centrosaurus was a synonym of Monoclonius. He wrote, “Whereas accumulating vertebrate fossils from the uppermost strate of the Stomach River sequence within the southeastern nook of Alberta final summer season, my ambition of twenty years was realized within the discovery of two skulls which could be recognized as Monoclonius.”
• By the Nineteen Nineties there have been three theories: 1) Monoclonius crassus was legitimate and the identical as Centrosaurus apertus, a junior synonym; 2) Monoclonius crassus was a nomen dubium and different Monoclonius species ought to be referred to different genera; 3) Monoclonius and Centrosaurus have been each legitimate, separate taxon
• Peter Dodson in 1990 discovered that Monoclonius and Centrosaurus have been each legitimate taxon. However in 1997 Scott Sampson and others discovered that the Monoclonius crassus lectotype and referred specimens have been nomina dubia as a result of they have been all juveniles or subadults and that the majority centrosaurines had a “Monoclonius” section whereas rising, which is why the specimens have been discovered in lots of locations and lived at many occasions
• Peter Dodson and Allison Tumarkin in 1998 mentioned that the bone construction could possibly be due to pedomorphosis (adults protecting juvenile traits), primarily based on the holotype of Monoclonius lowei having an interparietal bone that was 609 mm lengthy and the longest of any identified centrosaurine (second longest one was from an grownup specimen, displaying Monoclonius lowei was in all probability not a subadult)
• In 2006, Michael Ryan discovered that the holotype of Monoclonius lowei was a big subadult, as a result of an osteoderm on the sting of the frill was beginning to develop and there have been cranium sutures not closed
• Charles M. Sternberg had named Monoclonius lowei in 1940, primarily based on a big, considerably flattened cranium that had a small, backward curved nasal horn (present in Dinosaur Park Formation)
• Ryan recommended Monoclonius lowei could possibly be a subadult of Styracosaurus, Achelousaurus, or Einiosaurus
• Peter Dodson mentioned Monoclonius lowei is “nearly definitely a diagnosable species”
• Sort species is Monoclonius crassus
• Genus identify means “single sprout”
• Genus identify refers back to the means its tooth grew in comparison with dinosaur Diclonius, which implies “double sprout”, that Cope named in the identical paper the place he named Monoclonius. Cope mentioned that Diclonius had two units of tooth at a time (one in use and one alternative set able to go) and Monoclonius solely had one set of tooth at a time, and grew alternative tooth after a tooth had fallen out). The tooth he described has been misplaced, and primarily based on that description, in all probability was the tooth of a hadrosaur, not a ceratopsian/centrosaurine
• Species identify means “the fats one”
• Herbivorous
• Can see Monoclonius in Phil Tippett’s Prehistoric Beast

Enjoyable Reality:
Animals with one horn are generally described as monocerotic from the Greek Mono (one) and ceros (horn). The Latin model of 1 horn is Unicornu (anglicized to Unicorn).