Episode 401: Stegosaurus with Susannah Maidment, the world’s main professional on Stegosaurus. She joins us to debate the biggest identified stegosaur, 3D scanning probably the most full dinosaur from the UK, and what makes Stegosaurus so distinctive.
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Interview:
Susannah Maidment, principal researcher and curator of the archosaurs on the Pure Historical past Museum in London. She has printed greater than 50 scientific papers and is an professional on stegosaurs. Her analysis contains systematics, anatomy, and taxonomy of ornithischians, geological context of dinosaur evolution, and dinosaur biodiversity.
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The dinosaur of the day: Mercuriceratops
- Chasmosaurine ceratopsid that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation), and Montana, U.S. (Judith River Formation)
- Seemed like different ceratopsians, walked on all fours, had a big frill, had forehead horns and a beak
- Estimated to be across the identical dimension as Chasmosaurus, about 14–15.7 ft (4.3–4.8 m) lengthy
- As a chasmosaurine, most likely had two lengthy forehead horns and a brief nostril horn
- Two principal teams of ceratopsians: chasmosaurs (usually had lengthy neck frills, quick nasal horns, massive forehead horns) and centrosaurines (usually had quick frills, massive nasal horns, quick forehead horns)
- Herbivorous
- Most likely had a parrot-like beak
- Mercuriceratops helps present extra variation in ceratopsid frills and cranium ornamentation
- Had a singular frill, with wing-like protrusions on the edges of the frill (described as a butterfly-shaped frill, or neck defend)
- Additionally has been described as like the ornamental fins on traditional Nineteen Fifties automobiles
- Squamosal cranium bones have been hatchet formed and caught out from the aspect
- Cranium ornamentation most likely used to determine one another and appeal to mates, along with protection
- Kind species is Mercuriceratops gemini
- Fossils first present in 2007 by Tribold Paleontology Inc (frill parts)
- Described in 2014 by Michael Ryan and others
- Genus title means “Mercury horned face” and refers back to the Roman god Mercury, as a result of the wing-like ornamentation on the top is much like the winged helmet
- Species title refers back to the constellation Gemini, named for the twins Castor and Pollux, as a result of two very related specimens have been discovered (one in Canada, one within the U.S.)
- Two specimens discovered have been practically similar (squamosals from the proper aspect of the cranium), which helps present these fossils have been most likely not distorted or crushed or a pathology
- Specimens discovered about 236 mi (380 km) from one another
- Fossil in Montana collected on non-public land and purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum
- Fossil from Canada collected by Susan Owen-Kagen from the College of Alberta
- Holotype could also be a subadult, and referred specimen is a bit bigger and possibly older
- Mercuriceratops is a part of the Southern Alberta Dinosaur Undertaking, which focuses on dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous present in Alberta and Montana
- Represents the oldest identified chasmosaurine from Canada discovered on the time, and “the primary pre-Maastrichtian ceratopsid to have been collected on either side of the Canada–US border”
- Different animals that lived across the identical time and place embody ceratopsids, amphibians, fish, crocodilians, and lizards
Enjoyable Truth:
Stegosaurus was the second Ornithischian ever animated.
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