Episode 331 is all about Nqwebasaurus, an herbivorous coelurosaur from the Early Cretaceous in what’s now South Africa.
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On this episode, we focus on:
Information:
- A brand new oviraptorid embryo reveals that Oviraptor was not the “egg thief” it was as soon as considered supply
- A second specimen of Diamantinasaurus was described with a beforehand unknown braincase supply
- Extra work on a Sphaerotholus buchholtzae discover helps to point out it’s a legitimate species supply
- Utahraptor State Park is formally authorized after the governor signed the invoice into legislation supply
- In Montville, Connecticut, The Dinosaur Place in Nature’s Artwork Village not too long ago reopened with COVID-19 security measures supply
- Dinorama: Miniatures By the Mesozoic is on the Santa Barbara Museum of Pure Historical past via April twenty fifth supply
- Connecticut’s Sky’s the Restrict Climbing Problem consists of Dinosaur State Park this yr supply
- In Washington state, a lady obtained caught on high of a T. rex statue at Granger Dinosaur Park supply
The dinosaur of the day: Nqwebasaurus
- Basal coelurosaur that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now Jap Cape Province, South Africa (Kirkwood Formation)
- Appears like typical small theropod
- Small to medium in measurement
- Kind specimen is about 3 ft (0.9 m) lengthy, although most likely longer since caudal vertebrae isn’t full (tail bones)
- Kind specimen can also be a juvenile so could have grown extra
- Had lengthy palms with three fingers
- Had {a partially} opposable thumb and a recurved claw
- Had lengthy, slender toes with a really quick fourth digit
- Not clear if it had feathers, however could have been partially feathered based mostly on different kin having feathers
- Kind and solely species is Nqwebasaurus thwazi
- Named by William de Klerk and others in 2000
- Genus identify means “Nqweba lizard”
- Identify comes from the Xhosa phrase “Nqweba”, the native identify for space the place the dinosaur was discovered
- Species identify “thwazi” is Xhosa for lightning, as in a lightning quick lizard
- Almost full skeleton, together with a part of the cranium, vertebrae, elements of the forelimbs and hindlimbs
- Specimen unofficially nicknamed “Kirky”
- First coelurosaur present in Africa, second carnivorous dinosaur present in South Africa (after Coelophysis rhodesiensis, named in 1969). Although, Nqwebasaurus was later discovered to be herbivorous
- Helps present herbivory advanced early in ornithomimosaurian evolution
- Gastroliths discovered within the abdomen area, etched by abdomen acids. Uncommon for a carnivore however thought to assist with digestion
- Then in 2012, Jonah Choiniere and others additional ready the holotype of Nqwebasaurus and located new skeletal materials. Discovered Nqwebasaurus to be an herbivore. Some animals, together with birds, oviraptorosaurs, the ceratosaur Limusaurus (which had no tooth) and a few ornithomimosaurs have been discovered with gastroliths. However the gastroliths in Nqwebasaurus have been the precise measurement and distributed in a approach that the dinosaur most likely had a gastric mill (to assist break down meals), and the authors stated current assessments of herbivorous traits in ornithomimosaurs and coelurosaurs discovered that having a gastric mill “permits assured inference of herbivory in extinct non-avian dinosaurs” So, since Nqwebasaurus had a gastric mill, it’s considered herbivorous. Additionally helps that it had tooth discount (fewer tooth in its jaws in comparison with different theropods)
- Nqwebasaurus tooth crowns have been much like these of derived parvicursorine alvarezsauroids, and it might be the 2 sorts of dinosaurs had the identical technique for consuming
- Many similarities anatomically with Alvarezsauroidea (related forelimbs and hindlimbs, simplified tooth), however 2012 phylogenetic evaluation reveals it as Ornithomimosauria. Would assist to have extra fossils
- Ornithomimosaurs progressively misplaced tooth over time, as they advanced
- Had small, conical, unserrated maxillary tooth (no less than 4)
- No tooth at the back of the maxilla (identical as ornithomimosaur Pelecanimimus). That is in step with knowledge that implies lack of tooth in ornithomimosaurs went from again to entrance
- Might be a transitional stage for each Nqwebasaurus and Pelecanimimus the place they don’t want tooth within the again to eat however nonetheless want some entrance tooth
- The tooth have been fairly far ahead (procumbent) however might be diagenetic components (change in sediments). Nonetheless, in different theropods with shifts in tooth morphology “procumbency is a standard incidence” (tooth very far ahead)
- Most basal member of Ornithomimosauria and one of the crucial basal clades of Coelurosauria
- Helps present that basal coelurosaurs have been in Gondwana 50 million years sooner than beforehand thought, and that coelurosaurians could have been globally distributed early of their evolution
- Discovered by William de Klerk and Callum Ross in July 1996 throughout a joint expedition with Grahamstown Albany Museum and State College of New York Stonybrook
- In 2008, Catherine Forster and others stated there was a second theropod taxon referenced within the 2000 paper nevertheless it was an remoted left femur, and too incomplete to call as a brand new taxon
- de Klerk and Ross noticed fragments of fossils scattered on a sandstone slope, and after they adopted the path they discovered a shin bone, hooked up to a foot bone. They used a paintbrush to brush off filth and noticed the remainder was embedded in rock
- Type of a rushed day, since Ross was flying again to New York the following day. So that they went to Grahamstown to get plaster of Paris and coat the fossil. Ultimately they ready the fossil in a lab and did CT scans
Enjoyable Truth:
It took 70 years for Oviraptor to have its repute cleared from “egg thief” to a great guardian.
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