Episode 99 is all about Afrovenator, a megalosaurid theropod that lived within the center Jurassic in what’s now Niger.
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On this episode, we focus on:
- The dinosaur of the day: Afrovenator
- Megalosaurid theropod that lived within the center Jurassic in what’s now Africa (Niger)
- Fossils present in 1993 in Niger, close to a sauropod, Jobaria
- Described in 1994 within the journal Science by Paul Sereno, Jeffrey Wilson, Hans Larsson, Didier Dutheil, and Hans-Dieter Sues within the paper “Early Cretaceous dinosaurs from the Sahara”
- Initially thought to have lived within the Cretaceous, till sediments on the Tiouraren Formation the place it was discovered have been additional analyzed and located to be from the mid-Jurassic as a substitute
- Discovered one almost full skeleton (a lot of the cranium, components of the spinal column, partial forelimbs, partial pelvis, and a few of the hindlimbs)
- Sort species (solely species) is Afrovenator abakensis
- The species title refers to Abaka, the Tuareg title for the world of Niger the place Afrovenator was found
- About 26 ft (8 m) lengthy, and weighed about one ton
- Bipedal, and had three claws on every hand
- Had lengthy forelimbs and decrease legs
- Fairly flat cranium (size is nearly 3x the peak), although a few of the cranium is lacking so it might not be that flat
- Has a number of distinct traits, corresponding to a low rectangular backbone on the third neck vertebra and a flat crescent-shaped wrist bone
- Light-weight and possibly fairly quick
- Maxilla had 14 tooth sockets (no enamel discovered)
- No direct proof that Afrovenator hunted Jobaria, however might have occurred (or Afrovenator might have gone after juvenile Jobaria)
- Skeleton is now on the College of Chicago
- A part of the group Megalosauridae
- Although Sereno initially described Afrovenator as a basal spinosauroid, and one other examine in 2003 discovered it extra intently associated to Allosaurus (although nobody else has concluded that)
- Huxley named the household Megalosauridae in 1869
- It was a “wastebasket” group, that means it included a big number of unrelated species (Dryptosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Indosaurus, Velociraptor)
- Lived within the mid to late Jurassic about 170-148 Ma
- Lived in Europe, North America, South America, and Africa
- Cousins of spinosauridae
- Thomas R. Holtz supplied an alternate group definition as all dinosaurs extra intently associated to Megalosaurus than to Spinosaurus, Allosaurus, or fashionable birds
- They’re primative theropods; small to massive sized, with sharp enamel and had three claws on every hand
- Massive predators are normally tougher to seek out than prey, so not a lot is thought about megalosaurs
- However, Megalosaurus did look just like T-rex, and will have been coated in proto-feathers
- Enjoyable reality: Everyone knows that birds are dinosaurs since we will present that birds advanced from dinosaurs. Likewise, alligators are reptiles as a result of they advanced from different reptiles. However why aren’t dinosaurs thought-about fish since we all know that dinosaurs advanced from fish?Mainly it’s as a result of dinosaurs are a “monophyletic” group that means that the clade dinosauria consists of dinosaurs and all of their descendants; whereas fish, and reptiles are “paraphyletic” teams which solely embody explicit descendants. And since they don’t have good clear definitions, it results in a number of room for interpretation for what needs to be included in Reptilia or different “paraphyletic” teams. In actual fact, relying on who you ask, birds both are or aren’t reptiles, and since reptiles are “paraphyletic” there isn’t actually a “proper” reply. This is similar purpose that we don’t take into account people to be fish or reptiles.
This episode was dropped at you by:
The Royal Tyrrell Museum. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is situated in southern Alberta, Canada. One of many high paleontological analysis institutes on the planet, your complete museum is devoted to the science of paleontology. It’s positively a should see for each dinosaur fanatic. Extra info will be discovered at tyrrellmuseum.com.