I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Concavenator (Episode 63)

Episode 63 is all about Concavenator, a carcharodontosaur with quill knobs and a hump again.

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On this episode, we focus on:

Named in 2010; paleontologists José Luis Sanz, Francisco Ortega and Fernando Escaso discovered the fossil
Holotype is an almost full, articulated skeleton (now on the Museo de las Ciencias de Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, and it’s on show)
Most full carcharodontosaur, and first to point out proof of feathers or one thing like feathers

In birds, quill knobs anchor the roots of the feathers on their wings
Different animals with quill knobs on its forelimbs embrace theropods like Velociraptor
Scales wouldn’t have follicles, and Concavenator‘s bumps have follicular constructions, which implies Concavenator had quill knobs, and subsequently appendages, just like feathers

Quill knobs imply it had feathers, or some sort of pores and skin construction that was a prequel to feathers
Earlier than Concavenator, fossils from coelurosaurs (a theropod group with feathers) confirmed that birds advanced from dinosaurs; however Concavenator was a carcharodontosaurid not a coelurosaur; its final shared frequent ancestor with coelurosaurs was within the Center Jurassic. Concavenator’s quill knobs was the primary proof of a theropod dinosaurs outdoors the coelurosaur group coated in one thing aside from scales
Again in 2010, confirmed that feathers had been extra widespread amongst theropods than scientists had thought, and that feathers may seem on bigger dinosaurs and never cowl a complete physique

Luis Chiappe, director of The Dinosaur Institute on the Pure Museum of LA County, instructed Discovery Information in 2010 that Concavenator “reveals that feathers weren’t restricted to simply small dinosaurs, even when they didn’t should cowl their whole our bodies. This fossil presents further assist documenting the dinosaurian ancestry of birds and the declare that birds reside dinosaurs.”
Could have had some sparse protofeathers on its decrease arms (however no feathers discovered with the fossils, so not solely positive it was feathers)
Feathers or feather constructions could have helped with thermal management, or helped with aerodynamics

For the reason that quill knobs are solely on the forearms, they had been in all probability used for show
Not everybody believes these are literally quill knobs. Darren Naish mentioned these bumps had been irregularly spaced, and that many animals have one thing comparable alongside their intermuscular traces (they had been muscular insertion factors)
Elana Cuesta, Ortega and Sanz (who described Concavenator in 2010) studied the bumps once more and offered their findings on the 2015 assembly of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the place they concluded that the bumps had been quill knobs, although it was uncommon for them to be on the highest floor of the bone. Nonetheless, this may be seen in some fashionable birds, such because the Moorhen

Additionally discovered impressions that present it had vast, rectangular scales below its tail and toes
Additionally notable: two tall vertebrae in entrance of the hips fashioned a tall, slender, pointed crest (presumably had a hump) on the again
Had a brief, however tall sail or hump that was solely on its decrease again (seemed like a dorsal fin)

Francisco Ortega has mentioned the hump could have seemed just like humps we see on some fashionable cows
Tall neural spines have been present in spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids and a few tetanurans earlier than, however not solely on the decrease again. Concavenator’s again hump operate is unclear, since it’s so quick
Hump or sail on its decrease again (above the hips) could have been used for show, thermoregulation, or to retailer fats or one thing else

Becklespinax has been in comparison with Concavenator and a few scientists suppose they might be the identical genera (they’re comparable in dimension, look alike; have the hump); however arduous to know, since Becklespinax all we all know is 3 dorsal vertebrae; additionally Becklespinax is 10 million years older
About 20 ft (6 m) lengthy
Practically full cranium

Quick, stout claws
Lived in wetlands
Concavenator reveals that carcharadontosaurids lived in Europe and the northern continents, along with South America, Africa and Australia

Carcharodontosaurids (identify means “shark-toothed lizards) had been carnivorous theropods
Ernst Stromer named the household in 1931
Household consists of Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan (all about identical dimension or bigger than T-rex)

Carcharodontosaurids and spinosaurids had been the most important predators in Gondwana within the early and center Cretaceous
Enjoyable Reality: Partly from the “introduction on taxonomy” in wikiversity.org: There are lots of naming conference suffixes for taxonomy (teams like Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Household, Genus, Species) (and we frequently quote analysis that makes use of them lots). The 2 commonest appear to be: teams of households (superfamily)–oidea (typically shortened to “oid”), household–thought (typically shortened to “id”). Superfamilies are particularly helpful as a result of most dinosaurs have a novel genus and taking T-rex, for instance, speaking concerning the household (Tyrannosauridae) leaves out a number of comparable dinosaurs whereas going as much as the order Saurischia (and even suborder theropoda) is usually too broad. Plus it helps cut back arguments about which particular household a genus is in; and as an alternative we will simply speak about their traits.

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