Episode 472: Oryctodromeus with Dr. Anthony J. Martin – remastered. Ichnology is the research of the hint fossils that animals go away behind. Dr. Martin first launched us to ichnology nearly 9 years in the past and now we’re revisiting that interview with improved remastered audio.
Dr. Martin can also be the writer of a number of books, together with Dinosaurs With out Bones. You can even discover him on Twitter, @Ichnologist. and I like to recommend studying his submit that dissects the ichnology within the Jurassic Park films.
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On this episode, we talk about:
The dinosaur of the day: Oryctodromeus
- The identify Oryctodromeus is Greek for “Burrowing Runner.”
- Oryctodromeus was the primary recognized burrowing dinosaur, and Dr. Martin and his colleagues discovered an grownup and two juveniles in a fossilized chamber, in 2007. They’d died and decayed within the burrow, which appeared much like these made by hyenas and puffins.
- Having juveniles with the adults suggests Oryctodromeus supplied parental take care of an prolonged time period.
- Oryctodromeus lived throughout the Center Cretaceous, about 95 million years in the past, in southwestern Montana and southwestern Idaho.
- Oryctodromeus was as much as 6.8 lengthy, and weighed 70 kilos (it was small, however fast)
- Oryctodromeus didn’t have lengthy legs and arms, like fashionable burrowing animals. However it did have extra specialised variations, comparable to a versatile tail it might curl up underground. This makes it much like rabbits, aardvarks, and hyenas.
- Dr. Martin recommends visiting Dinosaur State Park in CT to see dinosaur tracks.
Enjoyable Truth:
The biggest dinosaur eggs had been as huge as basketballs. Larger eggs had thicker shells, so if the eggs had been bigger than basketballs, dinosaur infants most likely could not have been capable of hatch.
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For many who could favor studying, see under for the transcript of the episode, together with our interview with Dr. Martin:
Garret: Hiya and welcome to IknowDino, a podcast about dinosaur and all issues dinosaur associated. I’m Garret
Sabrina: And I’m Sabrina.
Garret: Immediately we shall be interviewing Dr. Anthony J. Martin, who’s an ichnologist, which suggests he research all of non-bone associated traces from dinosaurs which can also be coprolite, also referred to as dinosaur fossilized poop, and dinosaur tracks and gastroliths, that are stones that they swallowed, and anything that will get fossilized or preserved that isn’t the dinosaur itself. It offers a deeper understanding of the day-to-day lives of dinosaurs which you could’t get that from their bones and even their skins or feathers or something. It’s actually in some methods much more fascinating than finding out bones as a result of you’ll be able to see whether or not the dinosaurs raised their younger or whether or not they left them at a younger age, you’ll be able to inform in the event that they hunted in packs or in the event that they migrated as a herd, you’ll be able to inform how rapidly they moved by how far aside their footprints are spaced, and you’ll inform how huge they had been after they had been born as a result of it consists of issues like their nests.
Sabrina: Becoming a member of us is Dr. Anthony Martin, a paleontologist and professor at Emery school at Atlanta Georgia. He makes a speciality of ichnology, which research issues comparable to animal tracks, burrows, trails and feces and might confirm dinosaur habits, weight-reduction plan, and migration patterns, amongst different issues. He’s recognized for locating the primary burrowing dinosaur in addition to discovering one of the best assemblage of polar dinosaur tracks within the Southern hemisphere and he’s additionally the writer of a number of books, and the newest one known as Dinosaurs With out Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Hint Fossils. So welcome and thanks once more for this interview.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Nicely thanks for asking me Sabrina. It is a pleasure.
Sabrina: So how did you get into this discipline, particularly ichnology? What made you ?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Ichnology me once I was in graduate college. I first began studying about these hint information, these are traces made by animals and vegetation and preserved in a fossil file what actually drew me about hint file was realizing that these had been the merchandise […] these hint information will let you know information, burrows, nests, feces these let you know what a specific animal was doing in on a specific day tens of millions of years in the past for me that imaginative draw of hint fossils I simply haven’t gotten over it, it’s one thing that excites me each time […]
Sabrina: I learn that you simply studied each fashionable and historic traces, do you might have a desire?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah, is dependent upon which day it’s, the place I’m ,like proper now I’m at Atlanta Georgia space, so essentially I’ve to have a look at fashionable traces if I’m going out for a stroll in order that’s going to be unbelievable as I stroll by means of a metropolis park I can see there are burrows made by […] or there’s a head nest or there’s the drilled gap on a tree left by a woodpecker. There are these raccoon tracks going by means of the park in the midst of the night time that folks didn’t know, no raccoons dwell there, these kind of traces all draw me in for a contemporary perspective but when I’m out West let’s say simply three weeks in the past I used to be out at Montana watching […] traps and different traces these then are what are going to be my focus though I don’t ignore the trendy traces I see round there too, okay, so yeah simply is dependent upon the place I’m, what I’m doing these days.
Sabrina: So I learn in your current e-book you mentioned ichnology is about storytelling and arising with plenty of what if eventualities. So how are you going to be certain of those eventualities and what’s the everyday strategy of arising with them?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: A number of the eventualities as I convey into that story, at first of Dinosaurs With out Bones a few of them are, I’m fairly certain about we’re very certain for example that there have been dinosaurs of […] or made nests a sure approach or made burrows so these kind of concepts have been backed up many times from the proof that we get from dinosaur hint fossils generally we simply have the hint fossils, generally now we have their bones related to the hint fossils or now we have different fossils that is perhaps interacting just like the dinosaur feces. For example I wrote on the market had been dung beetles, nice thundering herds of dung beetles as I wish to say, they had been interested in the dinosaur dung properly we find out about that due to the analysis that Dr. Karen Chin did on dinosaur feces has proven that there have been traces left behind by dung beetles that match clearly fashionable dung beetles, we’re very certain about that, so among the eventualities that I introduced had been somewhat extra imaginative, however in these instances I admitted it and mentioned additionally that in science we predict, generally we get hint fossils that present a sure sort of habits. Nicely it is perhaps one thing else however we can also predict that we should always discover these […] hint fossils and I’ve somewhat want checklist that finish of the e-book that sort of says right here’s some future eventualities we is perhaps fulfilling with scientific proof.
Sabrina: What’s on the prime of your checklist?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: On the prime of my want checklist, I believe it was monitor approach made by a big predatory dinosaur, one thing like a tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, a type of different actually giant predators. What’s very cool is that that was in direction of the highest of my want checklist, I don’t bear in mind precisely which quantity it was, however then it received fulfilled final month. There have been 5 or 6 ichnologists who revealed a paper simply final month about these enormous dinosaur monitor methods in British Colombia that confirmed these few giant predatory most likely, tyrannosaurus […] had been strolling parallel to 1 one other in order that urged the varied behaviors of those giant dinosaur could have been looking collectively or simply transferring collectively. That was fairly cool.
Sabrina: So simply going again to the sort of the story telling side…what are your ideas on fiction about dinosaurs? I believe I already talked about paleontologists usually attempt to avoid writing fiction however then your opening scene within the e-book was—simply I actually loved studying it.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah that’s proper. I’d like to see extra paleontologists write fiction objective level and inform everyone, please that is fiction however use their information, use their expertise to have the ability to spin some extra imaginative tales. Now generally it does appear to be we’re spinning imaginative tales already however we scientists, we attempt to use our proof based mostly reasoning as a part of that or if we’re being speculative we are saying, “Oh right here’s a hypothesis and it’s a prediction,” after which we attempt to simply show it like several good scientists would do. However I’d like to see extra folks doing fiction with dinosaurs that’s not essentially backed up by proof however impressed by proof. What additionally must be realized in case you are doing that kind of fiction is you begin what has been proven by the fossil file, particularly for dinosaurs, and generally they had been far more loopy than we might make up and generally […] particularly after we get new revelations about dinosaurs and the way they behaved, help each other, help different animals, help vegetation or to their ecosystems usually.
Sabrina: Do any examples spring to thoughts?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Nicely we’re discovering out now an instance of how, we’re discovering out now that the road we draw between what’s a dinosaur, what’s a chook, we now know that fashionable birds are dinosaurs. I received a chapter within the e-book that’s about birds as fashionable dinosaurs […] which you could monitor a dinosaur at present by simply going by means of an area park and watching birds and seeing the traces they make. That line is getting so blurred now that we at the moment are realizing a few of these small feathered dinosaurs most likely had been arboreal that they had been going up in timber and that they had been both gliding or flying from tree to tree. That kind of blurred line the place what’s chook what’s a dinosaur it’s now develop into complicated even for these of us who research that it’s getting actually complicated and any person simply ask themselves, properly the place will we draw the road? Nicely I’m probably not certain and a few of what now we have seen now could be what we all know are […] they had been behaving in a really bird-like method and I believe sooner or later one of many different chapters, I received a chapter that appears at nesting and nesting behaviors of dinosaur, I believe we’re going to seek out extra examples of that the place these […] dinosaurs had been nesting very very like birds these kind of habits goes again could also be farther and in additional miniatures of dinosaur than we ever would have suspected.
Sabrina: Yeah, your e-book additionally mentions dinosaur swimming. I didn’t understand, and so they could have completed leisure actions?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Leisure actions?
Sabrina: Yeah is there any proof of that?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Oh yeah, yeah that’s proper I did ask that query–is there any? We’ve seen this in plenty of animals at present, fashionable animals, that they generally did play and we see play habits in plenty of mammals that’s used as a approach of instructing. We additionally see now there’s a studying habits and instructing habits in some species of birds, so I’ll get into that. By leisure actions do you additionally imply dinosaur intercourse?
Sabrina: Yeah.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah I’ll let you know somewhat bit about that too and naturally that wasn’t essentially leisure, that was made procreation, however who is aware of? Yeah I did speculate somewhat about that as a result of we haven’t discovered any particular dinosaur hint fossils having intercourse. We all know they’d intercourse; we all know they’d and so they did for 150 million years after which with fashionable birds after all they proceed that proud habits, however we don’t actually have a direct hint fossil proof of that both, so I’d be involved in seeing is there any proof. I suppose I can put it into place and say the courtship habits if there’s any proof of play courtship habits, precise coitus, submit coitus, I even make in somewhat joke in there about that and maybe the gender variations one may see with these. These types of traces we haven’t actually nailed these down but in order that’s one thing that I took somewhat extra speculative view on these, however gave somewhat abstract and information submit for our future paleontologists. I believe I’ve mentioned soiled minded paleontologists, which principally all of us is, about how we might discover these fossils sooner or later.
Sabrina: So what if something tells us extra about dinosaurs? Do you assume tracks or feces, tooth marks, nests, burrows, possibly one thing else, or some examples the place we are able to study from them?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Oh gosh how can I select? So I suppose I’m extra of a holistic ichnologist in that, properly for instance once I was simply doing this discipline work in Montana I used to be in […] 75 million years outdated and minimal a dinosaur hint fossils I might see there simply in a day of strolling round included coprolite, dinosaur coprolites, tooth marks, dinosaur nests, tracks. That was a minimal I might see that simply in a morning I might stroll round that space and see proof by means of these hint fossils, so it actually is dependent upon the place you’re, what blocks you’re in, what kind of proof received preserved, if I’m in a spot that’s well-known for dinosaur tracks then after all I’ll give attention to those who tells us all kind of unbelievable habits about how they had been transferring. On the chapter I’ve on dinosaur tracks, it’s the longest within the e-book, it’s titled “These toes had been made for strolling, working, sitting, swimming, urging and looking,” that’s actually the preview within the title as a result of tracks can inform us much more than these. However nests are additionally extraordinarily helpful, particularly for telling us about submit mating habits, mentioning dinosaur infants, what occurred after, after the eggs hatched. Nurturing habits in dinosaurs nests have that potential to inform us about dinosaurs, and dinosaur burrows inform us about adaptation towards say predators or simply getting out of the best way of pure disasters […] After all tooth marks inform us about what dinosaurs ate, who ate who, and the way did they eat them, and what kind of harm was generally left on enamel by vegetation, what that dinosaurs had been consuming, after which after all I really like coprolites. Coprolites let you know precisely what a dinosaur was consuming on a given day. Yeah I additionally, so yeah don’t make me select. I simply love all of them.
Sabrina: That is sensible. Are hint fossils usually sort of onerous to seek out and establish?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: It relies upon. Tracks I believe are very straightforward for most individuals to seek out and I believe even an untrained beginner, when you exit in a spot that has some well-preserved dinosaur tracks and so they received to qualify that, properly preserved dinosaur tracks, they usually will spot them so how about that greater than half of the dinosaur tracks which have been found from a fossil file have been by untrained amateurs, individuals who had been out climbing in a distant space they discovered some three-toed or four-toed tracks and there’s something in our primate brains that we go, that we immediately acknowledge that sample as being one thing from an animal at generally it’s sort of paradoxical generally you overlook them if they’re too huge although.
Sabrina: Oh that’s fascinating.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: You stroll by them and also you assume that that’s a pothole. Oh what number of potholes had been there in Mississippi? Come on, give it some thought and once more you see the potholes resolved themselves in a sample discipline, that’s a diagonal strolling sample–ohh cool. So I believe tracks for most individuals are straightforward to identify, different ones, different hint fossils not really easy. Coprolites take plenty of coaching I believe as a result of lots of people get a false identification. They’ll choose up one thing lumpy that, it appears to be like like dung, it smells like dung. The factor [ 00:15:56:00 inaudible] they’re very excited they create it to their native museum, they create it to the paleontologists on the museum they present it to her after which she goes, “I’m sorry that’s not a coprolite.” And that sort of reminds you of the XFiles. I wish to imagine you realize, properly it’s not about perception it’s about what’s there, it has to have digestive materials in it for one, it simply can’t appear like a coprolite; it has to have proof that it went by means of the intestine of an animal after which did it belong to a dinosaur that narrows it down too […] after which which dinosaur it might need belonged to. I might imagine the hardest hint fossil of all to establish from a dinosaur, what I haven’t talked about but, is gastroliths. These are the abdomen stones that dinosaur swallow, not all dinosaurs just some we’re discovering now, swallow these stones to assist them with their digestion. These rocks are so troublesome to differentiate from simply an bizarre rock that didn’t reside in a dinosaur intestine so I’ve a complete chapter on it. It’s titled “Why would a dinosaur eat a rock,” and explores about how troublesome it’s to differentiate what’s a gastrolith and what’s not a gastrolith from rocks which can be in the identical sediments that comprise a dinosaur valve, tracks, or different forms of dinosaur fossils. That’s a troublesome one and people could be essentially the most difficult for […] for public to have the ability to establish.
Sabrina: Certain how would you as a paleontologist establish it?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Oh boy I’d have a troublesome time. There’s only some individuals who I believe are actually good at it. You search for a elegant floor that’s one clue, you choose it up and it appears to be like prefer it’s been polished […] do comprise stays of dinosaur from the suitable setting like river flood plains […] You may see some little chatter marks on it from the place it impacted with one other rock. Chatter marks should be in a approach that they weren’t made in a surf like from a surf knocking the rocks forwards and backwards additionally they usually occasions are coarse so they didn’t dissolve. Take into consideration a dinosaur swallowing a limestone that will have been the equal of swallowing a […] If they’ve simply dissolved of their abdomen with no proof of gastroliths there so it must be one thing that will be proof against abdomen acids too, so it’d really present some proof of that as properly that there may even be somewhat bit mass that’s really preserved in it. However often the people who find themselves distinguished this they’d to make use of microscopes or lasers or different forms of particular tools to have the ability to decide for certain that this got here from a intestine of a dinosaur. Thankfully fashionable birds additionally swallow stones, we even have huge birds that lived only in the near past known as […] in New Zealand and so they additionally swallowed stones so they’d gastroliths. So we are able to really have a look at […] gastroliths as current examples of avian dinosaurs doing this, additionally have a look at fashionable birds that swallow stones and have a look at the traits of these after which we are able to do the comparability so now we have these fashionable equivalents with our fashionable dinosaur that we are able to evaluate of what we’d see in a fossil of dinosaurs.
Sabrina: You’ve talked about […] Australia is an efficient place to, was a well-known dinosaur tracks web site–what are another locations with hint fossils which can be sort of well-known?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah, […] was within the information once more as a result of the newest research completed on it, I discussed a researcher in that chapter, and I’m glad I left the chapter at, ended it sort of open ended as a query of [ …] who is aware of, fairly than taking a stand as a result of we at the moment are discovering that […] wanting on the proof I’ve learn the newest newspaper it does look pretty convincing that this was a dinosaurs swim web site fairly than dinosaur monitor web site and so they received their tracks there however they had been most likely from a dinosaurs that had been going throughout water […] They appear similar to the tracks then that we see in South-Western Utah, St. George, Utah which has 1000’s. And I’ve seen them; it’s unimaginable, 1000’s of dinosaur tracks which have been made by swimming. That they’ve the suitable sample, they’ve the suitable kind to them, and so they simply have all of those traits that present these had been dinosaurs that had been most likely buoyed up by water and their […] had been simply touching their backside as they had been sort of I’ll say dog-paddling, dinosaur-paddling alongside.
Sabrina: I used to be additionally fascinated you talked about sauropods could have made trails that remodeled the land and waterways of the areas they lived in. May you elaborate?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah I needed to say what was my favourite chapter to jot down within the e-book, it was the final chapter it was known as “Dinosaurs and landscapes ,“ and evolutionary traces, and that was one of many factors I introduced up is that sauropods most likely modified their landscapes and people adjustments then in an irrigative kind of approach then affected landscapes that now we have at present. And I even speculated, I don’t assume I fairly speculated, that possibly a few of these river valleys that now we have at present that take again to the time of sauropods could also be these had been affected, the course of these river valleys had been affected by sauropods. Now the trendy analogies I used, and they’re actually weak analogies I’d join as a result of they’re too small, could be elephants and hippos. Hippos, for example, make these trails that go from their water our bodies throughout land and join water our bodies, and since they’re huge animals and so they put on down these trails, they find yourself connecting the water our bodies and so they get this actually deep channel kinds that truly can change the programs of the rivers or in any other case change the panorama. Elephants do the identical kind of factor however they fully change landscapes, particularly wetlands, that the elephant trails over time will join all of those wetlands that usually wouldn’t be linked, on a smaller scale flamingo […] and a few of her colleagues that they did in Jap Africa the place they had been a flamingo nesting floor the place these tens of millions of flamingos had been making this mound nest. Over time tens of millions of flamingoes making nests in that very same space round these lake shores fully modified the move regime of these lake shores. So these are small animals in comparison with dinosaurs, elephants, hippos, flamingos for certain are very small animals, however then there’s that strengthening numbers after which time after all […] how that had have modified the landscapes in order that proof from Western Australia of dinosaur trails that Tony […] proposed. I believe he’s completely proper that these had been the paths that sauropods over time wore them down really modified the landscapes there at the moment clearly tens of millions of years in the past.
Sabrina: It’s simply loopy to consider.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah like I mentioned that was my favourite chapter to jot down as a result of it has, okay you thought stuff was thoughts boggling, wait until you learn this and simply sort of piece all of it collectively how these traces are greater than only a single footprint, a gastrolith, a coprolite. No, you have a look at your panorama that may have been affected by a dinosaur.
Sabrina: Yeah, I additionally seen that you simply talked about Jurassic Park a couple of occasions within the e-book, and it sounded such as you didn’t care an excessive amount of for the sequels. What’s your feeling on the primary film?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah it’s humorous I lastly received myself to observe the entire Jurassic Park 2 lately, and it wasn’t really that unhealthy as I initially thought as a result of I solely noticed, I by no means noticed the entire thing, all the time caught snips of it on TV or noticed some clips on YouTube, after which I heard from my colleague paleontologist buddies they had been like, “Ohh it’s so unhealthy in comparison with the unique.” I imply, nearly everyone loves the unique; then I watched it and it really wasn’t that unhealthy. A cool factor that occurred in it, that I want I had recognized about earlier than, was {that a} huge sport hunter character, I forgot his identify within the film, he’s really monitoring the tyrannosaurus one time and so they confirmed this tyrannosaurus monitor and I used to be like, “Ohh that’s cool.” So from time to time I make myself rewatch. I’ve seen all of Jurassic Park.
I’m going to make myself rewatch it after which once more take into consideration what kind of traces had been within the film after which I, on my weblog just like the traces of the […] I did a weblog on it final 12 months concerning the re-release of Jurassic Park in 3D I went to see it within the theatre to see it in 3D however I took of what traces had been proven on the film, what was based mostly on ichnology, what had been among the dinosaur habits that will be based mostly on ichnology and that was actually enjoyable to do. It was really pretty in depth. It was an extended submit on the subject and I titled it the “Ichnology of Jurassic Park,” so I completely anticipate to try this with Jurassic World or so-called Jurassic Park 4, which is meant to return out subsequent summer season. So we’ll see I’ll get pleasure from it only for the ichnology and hate the film. Who is aware of we’ll see.
Sabrina: I’ll look out to your weblog submit.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah that’s proper.
Sabrina: So do you might have a favourite dinosaur?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: I’m fairly biased about that. It’s Oryctodromeus cubicularis. I’ve described it intimately in chapter 4 within the e-book which is titled, no chapter 5, I’m sorry. It’s dinosaur down underground Oryctodromeus cubicularis. I received the cool identify it means you might have seen […] roots, it means […] and it was an ornithopod dinosaur, small herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur that targets on burrows and it was present in it’s personal burrow with two of its partially grown juveniles. So this was the primary proof of dinosaurs having any habits. I describe this the burrow with my colleague and good friend David […] and we received a colleague […] who found the dinosaur within the discipline in South Western Montana as soon as the bones had been extracted from what was initially the den they realized that this dinosaur has had variations for digging. Its shoulder girdle was completely tailored for digging, had an additional vertebrae and its hip to brace itself and its snout was additionally sort of shovel-like and possibly repeated it additionally in digging. So these three traits of that dinosaur together with it being in a burrow together with the 2 juveniles being in burrow and each of these juveniles being of the identical age this was all very persuasive proof that Oryctodromeus was a burrowing dinosaur, and the primary that we all know of within the paleontology file. I believe we’ll discover extra of it now I believe we’ll discover extra it’s a prediction I make within the e-book and there shall be sometime that I believe we’ll discover another small dinosaur most likely […] too.
Sabrina: My final query is: what recommendation would you give for beginner dinosaur fans, like the place ought to they go to find out about their favourite dinosaurs?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Among the finest assets that they may use shall be Nationwide and State parks, now we have as a public assets is healthier, available for the general public to make use of so I all the time urge the general public to make use of these public assets as a result of then you’re the person and you’ll profit from it after which future generations will too. And the pattern of that is perhaps I don’t know the precise identify I haven’t been to it, in Connecticut I believe it’s Dinosaur State Park, in order that’s a dinosaur monitor web site there in Connecticut that folks can go to. It’s enclosed in a constructing and so they can see a whole bunch of dinosaur tracks from the early Jurassic from about 200 million years in the past there or you’ll be able to go to Dinosaur Valley State Park the place I did some analysis a few years in the past. I’m at the moment writing an article on the hint information there, Dinosaur Valley State Park that’s in Texas, that has among the greatest preserved sauropods tracks of wherever on the earth. Proper there within the state park you’ll be able to go see them and for dinosaur bones if you wish to see these then, you realize I’m okay with bones, I joke about that all through the e-book like bones, ahh who cares, however really one of many coolest locations you might ever see a dinosaur bones is at Dinosaur Nationwide Monument in Utah.
Sabrina: Oh yeah I’ve been there.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: I simply heard […] attainable to go there make a visit go see it. What’s additionally cool is simply in case you are self-prepared simply go round some dinosaur monitor websites round Utah after which there’s a couple of different locations the place you’ll be able to, in public assets like […] public lands. These are among the greatest locations to go and see say dinosaur tracks and really feel what’s cool about that. The place you see these tracks, that’s the place the dinosaur was, and also you don’t all the time know that with them however these types of assets which can be on the market I say obtainable on the market I say avail your self as a lot as attainable, and museums, don’t ignore museums. Museums are unbelievable assets too. A few of them are public, a few of them are non-public, however when you can really get to a park or anyplace that has these tracks or bones obtainable for you, the general public, that’s one thing I’d do; it is going to fill you with awe.
Sabrina: Nice properly thanks a lot.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Thanks Sabrina it was pleasure speaking with you.
Garret: In order Dr. Martin talked about dinosaur tracks play a giant position in understanding dinosaurs. You possibly can inform whether or not they had been in a herd or whether or not they had been solo. You possibly can inform how rapidly they had been transferring and all types of issues of that nature. There’s a neat place in Connecticut known as Dinosaur State Park and there’s an internet site dinosaurstatepark.org the place you’ll be able to study extra about it. It’s really a preserved space of dinosaur tracks the place you’ll be able to see a number of completely different dinosaurs and so they clarify what the dinosaur had been doing in that space at the moment and if you wish to see the precise tackle you can too go to our web site IknowDino.com and we’ve received a map of a lot of dinosaur museums and websites. Our dinosaur of the day is Oryctodromeus which is the dinosaur that Dr. Martin talked about having co-discovered.
Sabrina: So Oryctodromeus is Greek for “burrowing runner” and as Dr. Martin mentioned in his interview, is the primary recognized burrowing dinosaur which he and his colleagues discovered an grownup and two juveniles in a fossilized chamber in 2007. They’d died and decayed within the burrow which appeared much like burrows made by hyenas and puffins. Having the juveniles with the grownup suggests parental care and that no less than one motivation for burrows was to care for the juveniles and the scale of the juveniles suggests an prolonged interval of parental care.
Garret: Oryctodromeus lived throughout the center of the Cretaceous, which is the top of the dinosaur period. They lived in South Western Montanna and South Western Idaho. They’re as much as 6.8 toes lengthy and weigh about 70 kilos so they’re one of many small fast dinosaurs that you simply think about. They didn’t have lengthy legs and arms like fashionable burrowing animals however they did have specialised variations like a snout and a tail that was extra versatile than different ornithopods so it might probably curl up beneath floor when it was in it’s little burrows . These variations made it resemble a hyena greater than among the different fashionable burrowing animals. So our enjoyable truth of the day is that the biggest dinosaur eggs had been concerning the dimension of a basketball, the larger the egg the thicker the shell needed to be so if the eggs had been bigger the dinosaur infants could not have been capable of get out. Other than with the ability to escape of the egg shell as a child dinosaur you might even have limits within the permeability of oxygen by means of the shell as a result of when you think about the child dinosaur residing inside it has to get all of its oxygen by means of the shell and it might probably solely diffuse so rapidly and clearly if you end up going by means of a strong shell there are limits to that.
Sabrina: And that’s it for this episode of I Know Dino. Be part of us subsequent time after we discuss to Dr. Phillip Currie, a well-known paleontologists from Canada who can also be the creator of the free on-line course Dino 101.
Garret: If you want to study extra about dinosaurs or see dinosaur occasions, dinosaur museums or different dinosaur websites round America, United States of America, and somewhat bit in Canada, actually one or two websites up there so for, you’ll be able to go to IknowDino.com. We look ahead to speaking to you subsequent week.