Episode 441: Ankylosaurs in Antarctica and sauropods in Australia. Plus Brian Curtice joins us to speak about his work on sauropods and different dinosaurs from all around the world.
Information:
- New Antarctic osteoderms helps present how nodosaurids survived in such a hostile atmosphere. supply
- A Diamantinasaurus cranium helps present the connection between titanosaurs on a number of continents supply
Interview:
Brian Curtice, a paleontologist who has studied dinosaurs on 6 continents and lectured all around the world. He’s a sauropod specialist and the founding father of Fossil Crates, PaleoPortals, and Categorical Displays.
Sponsors:
The dinosaur of the day: Priconodon
- Nodosaurid that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now Maryland, U.S. (Arundel Formation and Potomac Group)
- Solely actually recognized from tooth, so laborious to say what it appeared like or how large it was
- Nonetheless, as a nodosaurid, would have most likely walked on 4 legs, low to the bottom, and been coated in armor and don’t have any tail membership
- Kind species is Priconodon crassus
- Genus title means “noticed cone tooth”
- The species title means “thick”
- Named by Marsh in 1888 (Bone Wars dinosaur)
- Marsh named Priconodon on a big tooth. In contrast it to Diracodon (now Stegosaurus)
- Tooth had a big root and was worn (described as a “worn tooth”)
- Marsh wrote there have been various fragmentary stays, which weren’t discovered with the tooth (which he named because the holotype specimen) and stated these stays can be “described extra absolutely elsewhere”
- Described the tooth as having a “slim neck, swollen base, and flattened crown” and that “the serrated edges meet above at a pointy angle”
- Lull acknowledged 5 extra Priconodon tooth, and located them to be much like Palaeoscincus (a now doubtful ankylosaur additionally named from tooth, present in what’s now Montana)
- Lull additionally referred a vertebral centrum as Priconodon however Gilmore later tentatively assigned it to Ornithomimus and stated it was a part of the sacrum (connects to the pelvis)
- In 1921 Gilmore wrote that although how we categorized armored dinosaurs at the moment “is considerably in confusion”, latest discoveries that had not but been described present Priconodon ought to most likely be categorized as a nodosaurid quite than a stegosaurid, based mostly on the scale of its tooth, options, and put on
- In 1978 Walter Coombs additionally stated the tooth belonged to a nodosaur
- Some scientists suppose it’s doubtful, and others agree that it’s legitimate
- In 1998 Kenneth Carpenter and Jim Kirkland revealed a assessment of Early Cretaceous ankylosaurs present in North America, and located Priconodon to be a legitimate dinosaur and to be a big nodosaurid
- Carpenter and Kirkland discovered 12 extra (remoted) tooth from the identical space the place the holotype was discovered, and in addition tentatively referred a left tibia (shinbone) to Priconodon
- Left tibia got here from a espresso mine in Muirkirk, Maryland
- Tibia is stout, like different nodosaurids, and is about 12 in (31 cm) lengthy
- Carpenter and Kirkland wrote “we discover it peculiar that no armor plates have but been reported from the Arundel Formation”. Nonetheless, they stated that doesn’t imply Priconodon didn’t have armor. “As a substitute, we advocate that both we’re mistaken and Priconodon just isn’t an ankylosaur, or that it’s merely fortuitous that armor has not but been discovered. This shouldn’t be shocking, contemplating how few fossils have been discovered within the Arundel.”
- In 2004, Alex West and Neil Tibert discovered Priconodon to be legitimate, by evaluating its tooth to different nodosaurs and ankylosaurs
- Enamel are completely different from different nodosaurid tooth as a result of they’re so giant
- Tooth dimension ranges from about 0.4 to 0.6 in (1 to 1.5 cm) lengthy and about 0.3 to 0.55 in (0.7 to 1.4) cm tall, in response to Carpenter and Kirkland
- For comparability, the most important Edmontonia tooth have been about 0.45 in (1.19 cm) lengthy and about 0.4 in (1.5 cm) tall
- Different animals that lived across the identical time and place included pterosaurs, sharks, lungfish, turtles, and crocodilians, and dinosaurs together with carcharodontosaurids, dromaeosaurs, ornithischians, ceratopsians (most recognized from fragments and tooth and thought of to be indeterminate members of their teams—so not too particular)
Enjoyable Reality:
Ankylosaur heads are some of the advanced armored physique elements within the animal kingdom.
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