Episode 524: Dinosaur Dancing and Motion. The present proof for dinosaur mating shows, copy, strolling, and operating. That includes chickens with synthetic tails!
A few of the matters we talk about on this episode are:
- “Show arenas” exhibiting potential courtship ceremonies in Cretaceous rock supply
- Two oviraptorosaur tails which will present variations between women and men (males with tail-shaking muscle groups) supply
- Dinosaur “dance ground” of tracks that appear to point out stopping and crouching behaviors supply
- A simulation of the large sauropod Argentinosaurus strolling supply
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The dinosaur of the day: Valdosaurus
- Iguanodont ornithopod dinosaur that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now England (Isle of Wight)
- Described as considerably kangaroo-shaped
- Walked on two legs, had shorter arms, lengthy tail, cumbersome physique, and small head
- Estimated to be about 13 to 16 ft (4 to five m) lengthy
- The holotype, the femora, had been 14 cm (5.5 in) lengthy, and it was estimated to be 1.2 m (3.9 ft) lengthy and weigh 10 kg (22 lb), however the holotype was a juvenile
- Thought-about to be a dryosaurid
- Dryosaurs are iguanodonts that lived within the Center Jurassic to Early Cretaceous in what’s now Africa, Europe, and North America
- As a dryosaur, had a beak
- And doubtless was a quick runner, based mostly on limb proportions and muscle attachments
- No cranium of Valdosaurus discovered, however most likely had a battery of tooth
- The kind species is Valdosaurus canaliculatus
- Genus title means “sturdy” in Latin and comes from the Latin Valus, “Wealden” which refers back to the Wealden Group the place the fossils had been discovered
- Genus title means “Weald lizard”
- Species title means “with a small channel” in Latin, and refers to a groove within the thighbone
- Reverend William Darwin Fox collected two small thighbones on the Isle of Wight, and in 1868 steered they got here from the identical particular person (an Iguanodon present in 1848 by Gideon Mantell, that was renamed in 1869 as Hypsilophodon)
- Each femora (thigh bones) had been referred to Hypsilophodon
- In 1975, Peter Galton named the thighbones as a brand new species of Dryosaurus, as Dryosaurus canaliculatus
- In 1977 Galton named Valdosaurus based mostly on these two thighbones
- In 1982, Galton and Philippe Taquet described a second species, Valdosaurus nigeriensis, however that is now thought of to be Elrhazosaurus
- William Blows named one other species in 1998 Valdosaurus dextrapoda, by together with the title in an inventory, however it was an error and there’s no description so it’s a nomen nudum
- Being carefully associated to Dryosaurus, which was discovered within the U.S., led most dryosaurid fossils present in Europe being referred to Valdosaurus
- In 2009, Peter Galton reviewed the Valdosaurus materials and located no fossils from outdoors England could possibly be definitively referred to Valdosaurus
- Even of the specimens present in England, it was unclear in the event that they had been all Valdosaurus
- At one level, some specimens regarded as present in Romania
- About 3,000 disarticulated bones had been discovered and a few of them had been small ornithopod bones thought to belong to Valdosaurus
- Extra Valdosaurus fossils (4 extra specimens) present in 2011 from the Isle of Wight, which exhibits it was extra ample than beforehand thought
- A brand new skeleton was present in 2012 by Nick Chase and described in 2016, and it’s essentially the most full one discovered to date (contains a part of the again bones, an nearly full tail, components of the hips, and each legs)
- Articulated skeleton from the mid-back to the tip of the tail
- Lacking the entrance half, presumably acquired eroded away
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the identical time and place embody the tyrannosaur Eotyrannus, spinosaurs, sauropods, and ornithopods together with Iguanodon, Hypsilophodon, and Mantellisaurus
- Different animals that lived across the identical time and place embody fish, turtles, crocodilians, and pterosaurs
Enjoyable Truth:
Bony ridges in sauropod tail bones could have helped them use their tails as a weapon or to sign to different sauropods.
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