The I Know Dino podcast goes robust. We now have a number of episodes up already, and are engaged on getting all of them transcribed.
You will discover our free podcast, with each episodes, on iTunes at:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2
In our second episode, our featured visitor is Dr. Anthony J. Martin, a paleontologist who focuses on ichnology, which in accordance with his web site, is “the examine of contemporary and historic traces brought on by animal conduct, akin to tracks, trails, burrows, and nests.”
Dr. Martin can also be the creator of a number of books, together with his most up-to-date one, Dinosaurs With out Bones. You can even discover him on Twitter, @Ichnologist. and I like to recommend studying his put up that dissects the ichnology within the Jurassic Park motion pictures.
On this episode, we talk about:
- The dinosaur of the day: Oryctodromeus. The title 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. That they had died and decayed within the burrow, which regarded just like these made by hyenas and puffins.
- Having juveniles with the adults suggests Oryctodromeus offered parental take care of an prolonged time period.
- Oryctodromeus lived through 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 trendy burrowing animals. Nevertheless it did have extra specialised diversifications, akin to a versatile tail it might curl up underground. This makes it just like rabbits, aardvarks, and hyenas.
- Dr. Martin recommends visiting Dinosaur State Park in CT to see dinosaur tracks.
- Enjoyable Truth: The most important 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 wouldn’t have been in a position to hatch.
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: At the moment we will likely be interviewing Dr. Anthony J. Martin, who’s an ichnologist, which implies he research all of non-bone associated traces from dinosaurs which can also be coprolite, often known 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 you can’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 possibly can see whether or not the dinosaurs raised their younger or whether or not they left them at a younger age, you possibly can inform in the event that they hunted in packs or in the event that they migrated as a herd, you possibly can inform how shortly 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 contains 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 focuses on ichnology, which research issues akin to animal tracks, burrows, trails and feces and might confirm dinosaur habits, eating regimen, and migration patterns, amongst different issues. He’s recognized for locating the primary burrowing dinosaur in addition to discovering the perfect assemblage of polar dinosaur tracks within the Southern hemisphere and he’s additionally the creator 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. This can be a pleasure.
Sabrina: So how did you get into this discipline, particularly ichnology? What made you ?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Ichnology me after I was in graduate faculty. I first began studying about these hint recordsdata, these are traces made by animals and crops and preserved in a fossil report what actually drew me about hint file was realizing that these had been the merchandise […] these hint recordsdata will inform you information, burrows, nests, feces these inform you 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 trendy and historic traces, do you have got a desire?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah, depends 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 trendy traces if I’m going out for a stroll in order that’s going to be implausible as I stroll by 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 the park in the course of the evening that folks didn’t know, no raccoons stay there, these type 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 depends upon the place I’m, what I’m doing these days.
Sabrina: So I learn in your current ebook you mentioned ichnology is about storytelling and developing with numerous what if eventualities. So how are you going to make certain of those eventualities and what’s the everyday strategy of developing with them?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: A number of the eventualities as I convey into that story, originally of Dinosaurs With out Bones a few of them are, I’m fairly certain about we’re very certain as an illustration that there have been dinosaurs of […] or made nests a sure approach or made burrows so these type of concepts have been backed up time and again from the proof that we get from dinosaur hint fossils generally we simply have the hint fossils, generally we now have their bones related to the hint fossils or we now have different fossils that is perhaps interacting just like the dinosaur feces. As an example I wrote on the market had been dung beetles, nice thundering herds of dung beetles as I want to say, they had been drawn to the dinosaur dung nicely we learn 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 trendy dung beetles, we’re very certain about that, so among the eventualities that I introduced had been slightly 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 form of conduct. Nicely it is perhaps one thing else however we can also predict that we should always discover these […] hint fossils and I’ve slightly want record that finish of the ebook that form of says right here’s some future eventualities we is perhaps fulfilling with scientific proof.
Sabrina: What’s on the prime of your record?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: On the prime of my want record, I feel it was observe approach made by a big predatory dinosaur, one thing like a tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, a kind of different actually giant predators. What’s very cool is that that was in the direction of the highest of my want record, I don’t keep in mind precisely which quantity it was, however then it bought fulfilled final month. There have been 5 or 6 ichnologists who revealed a paper simply final month about these large dinosaur observe methods in British Colombia that confirmed these few giant predatory most likely, tyrannosaurus […] had been strolling parallel to at least one one other in order that prompt the varied behaviors of those giant dinosaur could have been searching collectively or simply shifting collectively. That was fairly cool.
Sabrina: So simply going again to the form of the story telling facet…what are your ideas on fiction about dinosaurs? I feel I already talked about paleontologists on the whole attempt to avoid writing fiction however then your opening scene within the ebook was—simply I actually loved studying it.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah that’s proper. I might like to see extra paleontologists write fiction goal 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 all good scientists would do. However I might like to see extra folks doing fiction with dinosaurs that isn’t essentially backed up by proof however impressed by proof. What additionally must be realized in case you are doing that sort of fiction is you begin what has been proven by the fossil report, 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 crops or to their ecosystems on the whole.
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 trendy birds are dinosaurs. I bought a chapter within the ebook that’s about birds as trendy dinosaurs […] you can observe a dinosaur right now by simply going by a neighborhood park and watching birds and seeing the traces they make. That line is getting so blurred now that we are actually realizing a few of these small feathered dinosaurs most likely had been arboreal that they had been going up in bushes and that they had been both gliding or flying from tree to tree. That type of blurred line the place what’s chook what’s a dinosaur it’s now develop into complicated even for these of us who examine that it’s getting actually complicated and someone simply ask themselves, nicely the place will we draw the road? Nicely I’m probably not certain and a few of what we now have seen now’s what we all know are […] they had been behaving in a really bird-like method and I feel sooner or later one of many different chapters, I bought a chapter that appears at nesting and nesting behaviors of dinosaur, I feel we’re going to seek out extra examples of that the place these […] dinosaurs had been nesting very very like birds these type of conduct goes again could also be farther and in additional miniatures of dinosaur than we ever would have suspected.
Sabrina: Yeah, your ebook additionally mentions dinosaur swimming. I didn’t notice, and so they could have finished 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 numerous animals right now, trendy animals, that they often did play and we see play conduct in numerous mammals that’s used as a approach of educating. We additionally see now there’s a studying conduct and educating conduct 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 inform you slightly bit about that too and naturally that wasn’t essentially leisure, that was made procreation, however who is aware of? Yeah I did speculate slightly about that as a result of we haven’t discovered any particular dinosaur hint fossils having intercourse. We all know that they had intercourse; we all know that they had and so they did for 150 million years after which with trendy birds after all they proceed that proud conduct, however we don’t actually have a direct hint fossil proof of that both, so I might be focused on seeing is there any proof. I suppose I can put it into place and say the courtship conduct if there’s any proof of play courtship conduct, precise coitus, put up coitus, I even make in slightly joke in there about that and maybe the gender variations one may see with these. These kinds of traces we haven’t actually nailed these down but in order that’s one thing that I took slightly extra speculative view on these, however gave slightly abstract and information put up for our future paleontologists. I feel I’ve mentioned soiled minded paleontologists, which mainly 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 suppose tracks or feces, tooth marks, nests, burrows, possibly one thing else, or some examples the place we will 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, nicely for instance after I was simply doing this discipline work in Montana I used to be in […] 75 million years previous 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 these hint fossils, so it actually depends upon the place you might be, what blocks you might be in, what kind of proof bought preserved, if I’m in a spot that’s well-known for dinosaur tracks then after all I’ll give attention to people who tells us all type of implausible conduct about how they had been shifting. On the chapter I’ve on dinosaur tracks, it’s the longest within the ebook, it’s titled “These toes had been made for strolling, operating, sitting, swimming, urging and searching,” 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 worthwhile, particularly for telling us about put up mating conduct, mentioning dinosaur infants, what occurred after, after the eggs hatched. Nurturing conduct 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 way in which of pure disasters […] In fact 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 tooth by crops, what that dinosaurs had been consuming, after which after all I really like coprolites. Coprolites inform you 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 smart. Are hint fossils on the whole form of exhausting to seek out and establish?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: It relies upon. Tracks I feel are very simple for most individuals to seek out and I feel even an untrained novice, in case you exit in a spot that has some well-preserved dinosaur tracks and so they bought to qualify that, nicely preserved dinosaur tracks, they typically will spot them so how about that greater than half of the dinosaur tracks which have been found from a fossil report have been by untrained amateurs, individuals who had been out mountain 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 form 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 suppose 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 feel tracks for most individuals are simple to identify, different ones, different hint fossils not really easy. Coprolites take numerous coaching I feel as a result of lots of people get a false identification. They’ll choose up one thing lumpy that, it seems like dung, it smells like dung. The factor [ 00:15:56:00 inaudible] they’re very excited they carry it to their native museum, they carry 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 form of reminds you of the XFiles. I wish to imagine you recognize, nicely 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 the intestine of an animal after which did it belong to a dinosaur that narrows it down too […] after which which dinosaur it may 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 only a few we’re discovering now, swallow these stones to assist them with their digestion. These rocks are so tough to differentiate from simply an strange 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 tough 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 can 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 might have a troublesome time. There’s just a few individuals who I feel are actually good at it. You search for a refined floor that’s one clue, you choose it up and it seems prefer it’s been polished […] do comprise stays of dinosaur from the best 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 backwards and forwards in addition they typically instances 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 immune to abdomen acids too, so it would truly present some proof of that as nicely that there may even be slightly bit mass that’s truly preserved in it. However normally the people who find themselves distinguished this that they had 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. Happily trendy birds additionally swallow stones, we even have huge birds that lived only recently referred to as […] in New Zealand and so they additionally swallowed stones so that they had gastroliths. So we will truly take a look at […] gastroliths as current examples of avian dinosaurs doing this, additionally take a look at trendy birds that swallow stones and take a look at the traits of these after which we will do the comparability so we now have these trendy equivalents with our trendy dinosaur that we will examine of what we might see in a fossil of dinosaurs.
Sabrina: You’ve talked about […] Australia is an effective place to, was a well-known dinosaur tracks web site–what are another locations with hint fossils which can be form of well-known?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah, […] was within the information once more as a result of the newest examine finished on it, I discussed a researcher in that chapter, and I’m glad I left the chapter at, ended it form of open ended as a query of [ …] who is aware of, slightly than taking a stand as a result of we are actually 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 slightly than dinosaur observe web site and so they bought 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 best sample, they’ve the best type 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 form 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 reworked 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 put in writing within the ebook, it was the final chapter it was referred to 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 modifications then in an irrigative type of approach then affected landscapes that we now have right now. And I even speculated, I don’t suppose I fairly speculated, that possibly a few of these river valleys that we now have right now 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 might join as a result of they’re too small, can be elephants and hippos. Hippos, as an illustration, 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 types that really can change the programs of the rivers or in any other case change the panorama. Elephants do the identical type of factor however they utterly change landscapes, particularly wetlands, that the elephant trails over time will join all of those wetlands that usually wouldn’t be related, on a smaller scale flamingo […] and a few of her colleagues that they did in Japanese 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 utterly 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 feel he’s completely proper that these had been the paths that sauropods over time wore them down truly 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 put in writing as a result of it has, okay you thought stuff was thoughts boggling, wait until you learn this and simply form of piece all of it collectively how these traces are greater than only a single footprint, a gastrolith, a coprolite. No, you take 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 instances within the ebook, 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 bought myself to look at the entire Jurassic Park 2 not too long ago, and it wasn’t truly that unhealthy as I initially thought as a result of I solely noticed, I by no means noticed the entire thing, at all times caught snips of it on TV or noticed some clips on YouTube, after which I heard from my colleague paleontologist pals 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 truly wasn’t that unhealthy. A cool factor that occurred in it, that I want I had recognized about earlier than, was {that a} huge recreation hunter character, I forgot his title within the film, he’s truly monitoring the tyrannosaurus one time and so they confirmed this tyrannosaurus observe and I used to be like, “Ohh that’s cool.” So at times 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 yr in regards to 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 conduct that will be based mostly on ichnology and that was actually enjoyable to do. It was truly pretty intensive. It was an extended put up on the subject and I titled it the “Ichnology of Jurassic Park,” so I completely count on to try this with Jurassic World or so-called Jurassic Park 4, which is meant to come back out subsequent summer season. So we are going to see I’ll take pleasure in it only for the ichnology and hate the film. Who is aware of we are going to see.
Sabrina: I’ll look out to your weblog put up.
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Yeah that’s proper.
Sabrina: So do you have got 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 ebook which is titled, no chapter 5, I’m sorry. It’s dinosaur down underground Oryctodromeus cubicularis. I bought the cool title it means you have got 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 conduct. I describe this the burrow with my colleague and buddy David […] and we bought 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 diversifications 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 form of shovel-like and doubtless 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 report. I feel we are going to discover extra of it now I feel we are going to discover extra it’s a prediction I make within the ebook and there will likely be sometime that I feel we are going to discover another small dinosaur most likely […] too.
Sabrina: My final query is: what recommendation would you give for novice dinosaur lovers, like the place ought to they go to study their favourite dinosaurs?
Dr. Anthony J. Martin: Among the finest assets that they might use will likely be Nationwide and State parks, we now have as a public assets is best, available for the general public to make use of so I at all times 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 title I haven’t been to it, in Connecticut I feel it’s Dinosaur State Park, in order that’s a dinosaur observe 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 possibly can go to Dinosaur Valley State Park the place I did some analysis a few years in the past. I’m at present writing an article on the hint recordsdata there, Dinosaur Valley State Park that’s in Texas, that has among the finest preserved sauropods tracks of wherever on the planet. Proper there within the state park you possibly can go see them and for dinosaur bones if you wish to see these then, you recognize I’m okay with bones, I joke about that all through the ebook like bones, ahh who cares, however truly one of many coolest locations you could possibly 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 […] potential 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 observe websites round Utah after which there’s a couple of different locations the place you possibly can, in public assets like […] public lands. These are among the finest 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 at all times know that with them however these kinds of assets which can be on the market I say out there on the market I say avail your self as a lot as potential, and museums, don’t ignore museums. Museums are implausible assets too. A few of them are public, a few of them are non-public, however in case you can truly get to a park or anyplace that has these tracks or bones out there for you, the general public, that’s one thing I might do; it’s going to fill you with awe.
Sabrina: Nice nicely 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 an enormous function in understanding dinosaurs. You may inform whether or not they had been in a herd or whether or not they had been solo. You may inform how shortly they had been shifting and all kinds of issues of that nature. There’s a neat place in Connecticut referred to as Dinosaur State Park and there’s an internet site dinosaurstatepark.org the place you possibly can study extra about it. It’s truly a preserved space of dinosaur tracks the place you possibly can see a number of totally 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 deal with you can too go to our web site IknowDino.com and we’ve bought a map of plenty 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. That they had died and decayed within the burrow which regarded just like burrows made by hyenas and puffins. Having the juveniles with the grownup suggests parental care and that not 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 through the center of the Cretaceous, which is the tip 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 trendy burrowing animals however they did have specialised diversifications like a snout and a tail that was extra versatile than different ornithopods so it could possibly curl up underneath floor when it was in it’s little burrows . These diversifications made it resemble a hyena greater than among the different trendy burrowing animals. So our enjoyable reality of the day is that the most important dinosaur eggs had been in regards to 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 in a position to get out. Apart from having the ability to get away of the egg shell as a child dinosaur you could possibly even have limits within the permeability of oxygen by the shell as a result of in case you think about the newborn dinosaur residing inside it has to get all of its oxygen by the shell and it could possibly solely diffuse so shortly and clearly when you’re going by a stable shell there are limits to that.
Sabrina: And that’s it for this episode of I Know Dino. Be a 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 need to study extra about dinosaurs or see dinosaur occasions, dinosaur museums or different dinosaur websites round America, United States of America, and slightly bit in Canada, actually one or two websites up there so for, you possibly can go to IknowDino.com. We sit up for speaking to you subsequent week.