Episode 231 is all about Haestasaurus, a sauropod whose arm was initially regarded as from a carnivorous marine reptile.
We additionally interview Steve Brusatte, Paleontologist at The College of Edinburgh. Earlier than transferring to the UK he spent a number of years on the American Museum of Pure Historical past. He’s additionally the “resident paleontologist” for BBC’s Strolling with Dinosaurs and writer of the guide The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.
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On this episode, we talk about:
Information:
- A brand new hadrosauroid, Gobihadros, was described from a whole skeleton and cranium supply
- A juvenile T. rex is on the market on eBay, stirring up fairly a little bit of controversy supply
- A brand new ankylosaur has been introduced in Hillsboro, Texas supply
- A hadrosauroid from Hokkaido is happening show within the Nationwide Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo supply
- In Japan, an 18-year-old highschool pupil Yuuki Kadoguchi discovered a 90 million yr previous tyrannosaur tooth supply
- A brand new presentation particulars the tracks from the St. George Utah dinosaur observe web site supply
- The Montana invoice making fossils a part of a property’s floor rights was signed by governor Steve Bullock supply
The dinosaur of the day: Haestasaurus
- Sauropod that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now England
- Sort species is Haestasaurus becklesii
- Solely forelimb is thought (humerus, ulna, radius)
- Components of the pores and skin have been additionally preserved (first dinosaur specimen integument discovered), and had hexgonal scales that decreased in dimension, perhaps towards the elbow, and so they look loads like pores and skin impressions in different, later sauropod finds
- Sauropod, so quadrupedal, herbivorous, had a protracted neck
- Difficult historical past of this sauropod
- Richard Owen named Cetiosaurus in 1841, primarily based on sauropod fragments discovered round England. For a very long time, he thought these fossils have been all from giant, carnivorous marine reptiles, and weren’t dinosaurs. He named 4 species of Cetiosaurus
- Melville reclassified most of those fossils as Iguanodon, aside from 4 caudal vertebrae and three chevrons that he mentioned have been a brand new species, Cetiosaurus conybeari
- In 1850, a big proper humerus was discovered close to the location the place the Cetiosaurus conybeari vertebrae have been discovered, and Mantell named it Pelorosaurus conybeari, primarily based on the humerus, caudal vertebrae, and chevrons. He discovered the humerus to be strong and straight, and that there was a medullary cavity, and mentioned Pelorosaurus was most likely a dinosaur, not a marine reptile
- Owen disagreed, and as a substitute referred to as the caudal vertebrae and chevrons Cetiosaurus brevis, and used the title Pelorosaurus conybeari for the humerus
- Samuel Husband Beckles collected a block of sandstone in 1852 that was discovered close to Hastings, which had a big forelimb and pores and skin impressions. Gideon Mantell analyzed the forelimb and named it as a second species of Pelorosaurus, Pelorosaurus becklesii (in honor of Beckles), primarily based on the humerus being shorter and extra strong
- Not a lot written about this discover. Richard Owen ignored it
- Fossil was a part of Beckles’ personal assortment, then the British Museum of Pure Historical past bought it in 1891
- Richard Lydekker studied the fossils within the Eighties and Eighteen Nineties and mentioned Pelorosaurus conybeari might be a synonym of Ornithopsis. He additionally mentioned the fossil for Pelorosaurus becklesii might be Cetiosaurus brevis or referable to Titanosaurus or be a brand new genus, and he erroneously mentioned it got here from the Isle of Wight, as a substitute of East Sussex
- Othniel Charles Marsh named Morosaurus, a sauropod from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation (now regarded as a junior synonym to Camarasaurus), and in contrast British dinosaur materials with North America dinosaur materials when he visited England in 1888. In 1889 he mentioned that Pelorosaurus becklesii was referable to Morosaurus, primarily based on similarities and limb proportions, and mentioned the mix was Morosaurus becklesii
- Nicholson and Lydekker discovered that Cetiosaurus brevis, the caudal vertebrae of Pelorosaurus conybeari, and Morosaurus becklesii have been the identical, and named all of them Morosaurus brevis
- Nevertheless, Morosaurus is now not thought-about to be a legitimate taxon, and the diagnostic characters for it are obscure and customary to many sauropods
- In 1932 Friedrich von Huene discovered that the caudal vertebrae of Cetiosaurus brevis was a part of Megalosauridae and that the humerus of Pelorosaurus becklesii was completely different from Pelorosaurus conybeari (completely different proportions), and he referred to it as “Gen. (?) becklesii” (query mark exhibits it to be an unknown genus), and it appears he thought it was carefully associated to Camarasaurus
- Round 1990 John McIntosh discovered that Pelorosaurus was a legitimate brachiosaurid with a couple of species, similar to Pelorosaurus conybeari and Pelorosaurus mackensoni, however he didn’t think about Pelorosaurus becklesii to be Pelorosaurus, and as a substitute thought it was Sauropoda incertae sedis (unsure kind of sauropod), primarily based on the limb proportions
- Some thought it was a titanosaur due to the robustness of the forelimb, although not everybody agreed
- A number of scientists have mentioned that Pelorosaurus becklesii is a definite taxon, however didn’t give it a brand new title as a result of the holotype is fairly incomplete, and it’s been onerous to determine autopomorphies
- Then in 2015, Paul Upchurch, Philip Mannion, and Michael Taylor discovered that Pelorosaurus becklesii was completely different sufficient from Pelorosaurus conybeari and named it as a brand new genus, Haestasaurus becklesii
- Humerus is fairly full and unbroken, ulna is full however was damaged and repaired, radius was principally full however was damaged in three locations that have been repaired
- The staff in 2015 discovered 5 autapomorphies, together with having a strong ulna with a slender radius and having two small vertical ridges on the humerus
- Not sure the place Haestasaurus is phylogenetically. Might be a basal macronarian (essentially the most basal), might be a derived titanosaur
- Identify “Haesta” is the title of a pre-Roman chieftan, and his folks settled within the space of Hastings and gave Hastings its title (close to the place the dinosaur was discovered)
- Talked about in The Prime 10 Dinosaurs of 2015 guide
Enjoyable Truth:
There have been giant tyrannosaurs within the Jap US in the course of the newest cretaceous, however they could not have been T. rex.