Episode 378 is all about Pinacosaurus, Among the finest identified ankylosaurs with dozens of identified specimens together with juveniles.
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On this episode, we talk about:
Information:
- A brand new spinosaurid, Iberospinus, was described after a brand new excavation uncovered extra fossils supply
- A big group of Tethyshadros dinosaurs have been present in Italy supply
- The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite in Utah was badly broken lately supply
- A person allegedly stole a $25,000 dinosaur claw from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Present supply
- The Lengthy Island Youngsters’s Museum in New York has a brand new exhibit known as “The Age of Dinosaurs” supply
- Antarctic Dinosaurs: The Exhibition has moved to the Buffalo Museum of Science in New York supply
- We acquired extra particulars concerning the characters of Marvel’s Moon Lady and Satan Dinosaur supply
- A brand new miniseries known as Jurassic League, will function Justice League characters as anthropomorphic dinosaurs supply
- The official Jurassic World Dominion trailer was launched together with some feathered dinosaurs supply
The dinosaur of the day: Pinacosaurus
- Ankylosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Mongolia and China (Bayan Mandahu Formation and ?Djadokhta Formation)
- Seemed sort of like Ankylosaurus, with a physique coated in armor (much less spiky) and a membership tail
- Estimated to be 16.4 ft (5 m) lengthy and weigh as much as 2 tonnes
- Medium-sized
- Not as strong as different ankylosaurs
- Had a flat physique
- Had strong legs and arms
- Had 5 digits on every hand and three digits on every foot
- Had hoof-shaped claws
- Adults have skulls which might be longer than they’re huge
- Armor on the higher snout consists of a fused mass
- Had bone tiles on its head
- Had nostrils that fashioned a despair and had between three and 5 smaller holes (unclear why)
- Had cheek horns
- Had a clean beak
- Had rows of small enamel
- Had osteoderms on the neck, again, and tail (juveniles didn’t have osteoderms on the tail)
- Had two cervical halfrings defending the neck
- Had lengthy, flat, triangular spikes on the physique and tail
- Had smaller oval osteoderms in parallel rows on the again
- Had a comparatively small tail membership
- Pinacosaurus was the earliest specimen Phil Currie and Victoria Arbour studied in 2011, that had an entire tail membership
- They in contrast the tails of ankylosaurs, and stated it was more than likely that ankylosaur tails stiffened earlier than the knob or membership on the finish of the tail fashioned to maximise its effectiveness as a weapon
- Kind species is Pinacosaurus grangeri
- Fossils first present in 1923 by Walter Granger
- Named in 1933 by Charles W. Gilmore
- Genus title means “plank lizard”
- Genus title refers back to the plank scutes that coated the pinnacle
- Species title is in honor of Granger
- A second species, Pinacosaurus mephistocephalus, named in 1999 by Pascal Godefroit, primarily based on a specimen present in 1996 in Bayan Mandahu throughout a Belgian-Chinese language expedition
- Species title refers back to the “devilish” squamosal horns and means “Mephistopheles’s head”
- Pinacosaurus mephistocephalus fossils embrace a well-preserved cranium, decrease jaws, plenty of the postcranial, together with cervical armor and tail membership
- Second species specimen discovered through the second excavation marketing campaign of the Sino-Belgian Dinosaur Expedition in 1996
- The left arm, a part of the pelvic girdle, and hindlimb are lacking
- Wrote that the “skeleton was not deformed by stress after burial and there’s no proof of autopsy transportation”
- Most likely a subadult
- Second species is about 10 ft or 3 m lengthy (had a smaller cranium than the holotype)
- Variations within the nostril area from the sort species
- “The nasal is by far the biggest bone of the cranium roof, forming greater than half of the size of the cranium”
- Comparable cranium form to the juvenile Pinacosaurus grangeri specimen
- Premaxilla not fully coated by nasal and accent dermal plates, like in Pinacosaurus grangeri
- In 2010, Gregory Paul prompt Pinacosaurus mephistocephalus was a junior synonym of Pinacosaurus grangeri, however in 2012 Robert Hill stated it was legitimate and Victoria Arbour and Michael Burns confirmed
- In 2014 Victoria Arbour wrote concerning the systematics, evolution, and biogeography of ankylosaurs
- Younger in 1935 referred a 3rd species, Pinacosaurus ninghsiensis primarily based on similarities within the enamel and jaws. Now it’s thought-about to be Pinacosaurus grangeri
- In 1971 Maryanska stated Pinacosaurus ninghsiensis was a junior synonym of Pinacosaurus grangeri, and different paleontologists have since agreed
- Maryanska additionally synonymized one other dinosaur, Syrmosaurus viminicaudus, named by Maleev in 1952, with Pinacosaurus grangeri
- Gilmore first described the fitting ilium and tail vertebra with out naming the dinosaur, then later within the yr formally named it Pinacosaurus grangeri
- Holotype of Pinacosaurus grangeri discovered within the second Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum within the Flaming Cliffs
- Holotype features a crushed cranium, first two neck vertebrae, and osteoderms
- In Gilmore’s second description, printed December 1933:
- Specimen is “so badly crushed and damaged that a lot of its detailed construction is obscured, however in view of its distinctive prevalence, it appears worthy of description, though I’m absolutely conscious of the meagerness of its characterization”
- Badly crushed cranium and jaws and some scattered dermal bones
- Cranium coated in scutes
- Enamel extraordinarily small
- “Though badly crushed and checked in all instructions, virtually all components of the cranium and decrease jaws are current”
- Seen from above, cranium has sub-triangular form
- “It’s evident that, as in different members of this household, your complete prime of the cranium is roofed with ossified dermal scutes which fully obscure the underlying cranial components”
- Different specimens, cranium and skeleton of a juvenile, present in 1964 in a Polish-Mongolian Expedition, and in different localities of the Mongolian Gobi Basin by the Soviet-Mongolian Expeditions
- Robert Hill and others described a brand new juvenile specimen of Pinacosaurus grangeri in 2003, present in Mongolia (Ukhaa Tolgod); consists of a virtually full cranium
- Pinacosaurus grangeri was the second commonest dinosaur discovered at Bayan Mandahu, after Protoceratops andrewsi
- Pinacosaurus largely identified from juveniles and sub-adults
- Greater than 30 skeletons present in 1969 to 1970 as a part of Soviet-Mongolian expeditions
- One other 30 specimens discovered between 1993 and 1998 throughout Mongolian-Japanese expeditions
- Canadian expeditions discovered one other 40 specimens between 2001 and 2006
- Teresa Maryanska described a well-preserved juvenile cranium in 1971 and 1977
- There’s additionally extra, not but described, fossils discovered
- Eric Buffetaut referred ankylosaur fossils present in Shandong, China to Pinacosaurus sp. in 1995
- A juvenile specimen was described in 2015 as having a fancy hyoid bone (tongue bone equipment), which can imply it had a robust tongue, to go along with the small enamel that have been changed comparatively slowly. Some extant salamanders have comparable tongue bones and prehensile tongues. Potential Pinacosaurus ate some bugs, or possibly robust leaves and pulpy fruits
- A paper in 2011 analyzed the quarry diagram of juvenile Pinacosaurus present in China, and stated all have been upright with their limbs positioned below their our bodies
- In 2011 Michael Burns and others analyzed juvenile Pinacosaurus grangeri specimens present in China
- All of them had preserved skulls
- Discovered Pinacosaurus to be essentially the most basal member of Ankylosaurinae
- 4 specimens collected by the Canada-China Dinosaur Venture at Bayan Mandahu and have been ready
- A fifth specimen discovered at an unknown website at Bayan Mandahu by the Silk Highway Expedition
- One of the best specimens of the bunch have been on show as a part of a touring exhibit known as “The Biggest Present Unearthed”
- A lot of the died in situ and have been buried both throughout sandstorms or rainstorms
- Twelve extra juveniles discovered within the Sino-Canadian Dinosaur Venture
- All had the autopsy insect borings
- In 2021, Gábor and others studied whether or not ankylosaurs from the Cretaceous lived alone or moved in herds
- Grownup ankylosaurs usually regarded as solitary as a result of most skeletons discovered as remoted people
- However some MDAs discovered
- Greater than 30 juvenile Pinacosaurus skeletons collected between 1995 and 1996 by the Mongolian-Japanese Expedition within the Alag Teeg beds (although attainable a few of them have been found earlier than however left behind within the 1969 Soviet-Mongolian expedition)
- Potential Pinacosaurus was gregarious as juveniles (for cover), since MDAs had juveniles of comparable sizes
- Potential they got here collectively throughout a drought
- They have been discovered in several localities which might imply this was “true gregarious habits”
- However, nonetheless onerous to know their social construction
- Lived in an arid to semi-arid surroundings with massive open areas of low and sparse vegetation (good for a number of people gathering)
- Lived in a semi-desert
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the identical time and place included ankylosaur Minotaurasaurus, alvarezsaurs Kol and Shuvuuia, oviraptorosaurs Citipati and Khaan, ornithomimosaurs, troodontids Almas and Byronosaurus, titanosaurs, ceratopsians
- Different animals that lived across the identical time and place included amphibians, crocodylomorphs, lizards, mammals, pterosaurs, and turtles
Enjoyable Reality:
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