Episode 505: The State of Headbutting Science. Some headbutting animals endure mind injury from the shock; Plus Mississippi has a brand new most full dinosaur; Histology can assist inform a dinosaur fossil from different dinosaurs; and extra.
Information:
- Paleontologists reviewed what it means to have a dome-head and to headbutt like a pachycephalosaurid (and different prehistoric animals) supply
- Mississippi has a brand new most full dinosaur, however the species remains to be a thriller supply
- Histology can inform us if a fossil belonged to a dinosaur or one other sort of animals supply
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You possibly can win a big Spinosaurus tooth, fossilized leaf, and extra by successful our Di-Know-It-All Problem! Every week from episode 502 to 509 we’ll learn a puzzle on the present which you’ll be able to enter to win by answering questions. This week you possibly can enter at bit.ly/dinochallenge505 and should you’re a patron you possibly can reply the patron query at patreon.com/posts/108019451. All the principles for the problem are at bit.ly/dinochallenge24
Di-Know-It-All Problem:
You possibly can win a big Spinosaurus tooth, fossilized leaf, and extra by successful our Di-Know-It-All Problem! Every week from episode 502 to 509 we’ll learn a puzzle on the present which you’ll be able to enter to win by answering questions. This week you possibly can enter at bit.ly/dinochallenge505 and should you’re a patron you possibly can reply the patron query at patreon.com/posts/108019451. All the principles for the problem are at bit.ly/dinochallenge24
The dinosaur of the day: Saurornithoides
- Troodontid dinosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Mongolia (Djadochta Formation)
- Troodontids have been small, bird-like dinosaurs, with numerous tooth, and intently spaced tooth within the decrease jaw
- Had sickle claws on the second toes of their toes and have been in all probability good with good senses
- Saurornithoides had massive eye sockets and good depth notion
- Had a protracted, low head, and a comparatively massive mind
- Had lengthy nasals
- Had a protracted snout, had a protracted tail
- Seemed sort of like a highway runner, however a lot greater, and with massive claws on its fingers and toes
- Juvenile Saurornithoides mongoliensis described in 1993, with a leg that was extremely ossified (bony and inflexible), which can imply Saurornithoides was properly developed when it was born and didn’t want a lot, or any, parental care
- Sort species is Saurornithoides mongoliensis
- Genus identify means “lizard chook type” or “birdlike theropod” and refers to its bird-like cranium
- Fossils first present in 1923
- First troodontid skeleton discovered
- Holotype features a cranium and jaw, vertebrae, a part of the pelvis, leg, and foot
- Extra bones have been included however later discovered to be a part of a protoceratopsian
- Two different incomplete specimens discovered, however they don’t have sufficient detailed options, so solely generally known as a troodontids for now
- Described and named in 1924 by Henry Osborn
- Osborn in contrast it to Velociraptor
- On the time, Troodon formosus was identified solely from tooth and regarded as the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras, so Osborn in contrast Saurornithoides with Velociraptor, and steered “it could show to have avian relationships”
- Discovered it had totally different feeding habits from Velociraptor (not pretty much as good at seizing swift transferring prey)
- Henry Osborn named three dinosaurs in that paper (Saurornithoides, Velociraptor, and Oviraptor) and wrote: “The skulls are completely dissimilar and terribly fascinating”
- Cranium first regarded as a chook
- Steered it had an aquatic habitat, primarily based on particulars within the cranium and nostrils (however want limbs to know for certain)
- Mentioned it was a small operating theropod, “extra sluggish than Velociraptor, which was swift and raptorial in behavior, however remotely associated to it”
- Thought Saurornithoides was carnivorous or ovivorous (ate eggs)
- Extra Saurornithoides species have been named, however just one is taken into account legitimate (the kind species Saurornithoides mongoliensis)
- Contains Saurornithoides inequalis, which was Stenonychosaurus inequalis, and is now normally regarded as a junior synonym of Troodon formosus
- In 1982 Kenneth Carpenter described a hatchling Saurornithoides inequalis (now Troodon), primarily based on a partial left jawbone
- Mentioned it was much like one other Saurornithoides inequalis jaw however smaller
- Additionally Pectinodon asiamericanus turned Saurornithoides asiamericanus, then Troodon asiaamericanus
- And Troodon isfarensis turned Saurornithoides isfarensis, however is now identified to be a hadrosaur
- One other specimen was described in 1964 (first one collected by knowledgeable Mongolian paleontologist), and it was described in 1974 by Rinchen Barsbold as Saurornithoides junior
- Since then, extra troodontids discovered, and a 2009 research renamed the specimen as a brand new genus, Zanabazar, by Mark Norell and others (additionally re-examined Saurornithoides)
- Solely the kind species belongs to Saurornithoides
- Carefully associated to Zanabazar
- Zanabazar was referred to Saurornithoides due to similarities (Saurornithoides was the one different well-known troodontid with a cranium), and each being from the Late Cretaceous of Central Asia
- Norell and others did CT scans and located sufficient variations between Saurornithoides junior (Zanabazar) and Saurornithoides mongoliensis. Each have been solely identified from their holotypes
- Zanabazar is bigger than Saurornithoides
- Zanabazar cranium is 272 mm (10.7 in) lengthy, and Saurornithoides cranium is 189 mm (7.4 in) lengthy
- Zanabazar has extra tooth than Saurornithoides (118 in comparison with 108), the braincase seems barely totally different, and different particulars
- Plenty of similarities with Saurornithoides however may very well be as a result of the similarities are plesiomorphic (ancestral characters) and shared with different troodontids, together with Troodon formosus
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the similar time and place embrace ankylosaurs like Pinacosaurus, ceratopsians like Protoceratops, dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor, oviraptorosaurs like Oviraptor, troodontids like Archaeornithoides, alvarezsaurs, tyrannosaurs, and birds
- Different animals that lived across the similar time and place embrace amphibians, crocodylomorphs, lizards, mammals, pterosaurs, and turtles
Enjoyable Truth:
We might have the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs to thank for grapes evolving (and subsequently why we are able to eat raisins and drink wine).
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