Episode 443: Dinosaurs on Islands. That includes Prehistoric Planet 2. What triggered sea degree to rise within the Cretaceous and turned Europe right into a sequence of islands? Would Hatzegopteryx be a risk to people? Which islands did the Prehistoric Planet crew movie on? We’ll reply all these questions and extra!
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The dinosaur of the day: Morrosaurus
- Ornithopod iguanodont that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Antarctica, at James Ross Island
- Seemed considerably like Iguanodon, however smaller, with longer legs
- Thought of to be medium-sized
- Estimated to be as much as 13 ft (4 m) lengthy
- Most likely was a quick runner
- Sort and solely species is Morrosaurus antarcticus
- Fossils have been present in 2002 by Fernando Novas, who discovered a partial skeleton within the Snow Hill Island Formation
- Named and described in 2016 by Sebastian Rozadilla and others
- Genus identify means “El Morro lizard”
- Genus identify refers to El Morro on James Ross Island, the place the fossils have been discovered
- Species identify refers to Antarctica
- Holotype is a part of the correct hind leg and a part of the foot
- Holotype is on the Museo Argentino of Ciencias Naturales
- Rozadilla and others wrote: “The Cretaceous fossil file of non-avian dinosaurs in Antarctica is strongly patchy and biased”
- Holotype was discovered about 98 ft (30 m) beneath a theropod
- Fossils discovered related to plesiosaur bones and many marine invertebrates
- In 2019, Matthew Lamanna and others described extra Morrosaurus materials, together with extra of the foot and related however unidentified fragments
- The foot materials in all probability belonged to the holotype of Morrosaurus, primarily based on the place it was discovered and that a part of the foot was lacking with the holotype
- Additionally talked about some form of ornithopod skeleton discovered close to the place the Morrosaurus holotype was discovered. Might be Morrosaurus, however no overlapping bones to match (ornithopod skeleton doesn’t have the hind limb), so can’t know for certain
- Intently associated to Trinisaura, the one different named ornithopod present in Antarctica
- Morrosaurus had a stouter femur and tibia (leg bones), in comparison with Trinisaura, which was gracile
- Larger than Trinisaura
- In 2020, Jordi Garcia-Marsa and others did histology on Morrosaurus and Trinisaura
- Discovered the holotype of Morrosaurus was a sexually mature subadult
- Discovered the expansion sample of Morrosaurus and Trinisaura was just like Gasparinisaura and Australian ornithopods
- Discovered Morrosaurus might develop quick, but it surely occurred periodically, not constantly
- Progress slowed down because it acquired older
- Previous histological research discovered that Triassic and Jurassic archosaurs grew in cycles and grew rapidly after they have been younger, which implies this can be a plesiomorphic function (ancestral) for archosauriforms, which might have made it potential for dinosaurs to dwell in excessive environments with no need essential physiological modifications
- A part of the group Elasmaria, that are identified for operating quick
- Elasmaria contains dinosaurs from what’s now Patagonia, Antarctica, and Australia, which reveals that they had comparable kinds of animals
- Land connection between Patagonia and Antarctica means there have been some shared animals and vegetation
- Appears that dinosaurs from the James Ross Basin are just like the dinosaurs present in southern South America
- Just like numerous Patagonian animals, corresponding to Gasparinisaura, an ornithopod that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Patagonia
- Lived in a seasonal local weather, with winters getting all the way down to nearly -30° Celsius
- May get numerous rainfall, and many humidity
Enjoyable Reality:
There are a number of kinds of islands, however Continental islands are the most effective locations to search out dinosaurs.
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