I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Miragaia (Episode 116)

Episode 116 is all about Miragaia, a stegosaurid with a protracted neck.

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Named after the space the place the fossils had been discovered
Title can also be in reference to mira, which suggests great in Latin, and Gaia, the earth goddess
Title means “great goddess of the Earth”

Discovered after a highway was constructed between the villages Miragaia and Sobral
Discovered the anterior half and partial cranium (different half presumably destroyed throughout building
Described in 2009 by Octávio Mateus, Susannah Maidment and Nicolai Christiansen

Miragaia is the primary acknowledged stegosaur cranium present in Europe (earlier than, solely bits and items had been discovered)
Alberto Cobos and others in 2010 advised Miragaia was a junior synonym of Dacentrurus (which lived in England)
Sort species is Miragaia longicollum

Species identify means “lengthy neck”
About 18-20 ft (5.5-6 m) lengthy, although Gregory Paul estimated it was 6.5 m lengthy and weighed 2 tons
Had a really lengthy neck (not less than 17 vertebrae), which is a part of a pattern of longer necks in stegosaurs

Miragaia is a part of the clade Thyreophora, whose older members had 9 vertebrae. Then later ones, Stegosaurus and Hesperosaurus, had 12-13 vertebrae
Had the longest neck of any stegosaur, and extra cervical vertebrae than many sauropods
Neck vertebrae had been longer than vertebrae in different stegosaurs

Longer neck is convergent evolution with sauropod necks lengthening
Neck elongation could happen 3 ways: incorporating dorsal vertebrae into the neck (backbones moved ahead and have become a part of the neck), including new cervical parts to the vertebral column, and lengthening of particular person cervical vertebrae
Scientists assume all three of this stuff led to sauropods having lengthy necks

Due to its lengthy neck, Miragaia could have been capable of eat meals different herbivores couldn’t attain. The neck may have helped to draw mates (although it’s not clear precisely why it had such a protracted neck)
Giraffes are the one residing mammals with lengthy necks, and scientists assume it was as a result of lengthy necks attracted mates (similar as with sauropods)
Had lengthy forelimbs

Had a toothless beak, like Stegosaurus
Had a notch within the snout tip that was formed like a W (in Stegosaurus that notch is U-shaped)
Had ornamentation on the supper a part of the nasal bone

Had 16 enamel within the maxilla
Might have used its rear legs to rear up and attain excessive branches, however not identified for certain since these bones are lacking
Had spikes and plates, with eight paired plates

Had a protracted, slender spike that was regarded as a shoulder backbone, however now’s regarded as a part of the tail
Tail is unknown
Can see a reconstruction of Miragaia on the Museum of Lourinha in Portual (mixture of actual fossil and casts)

A part of the clade Dacentrurinae, inside Stegosauridae (sister group to Stegosaurus), and consists of Dacentrurus
Stegosauridae is a household of thyreophoran dinosaurs
Contains stegosaurs extra intently associated to Stegosaurus than Huayangosaurus

Lived into the late Cretaceous
Had rows or osteoderms alongside their neck, trunk, and tail (plates and spikes, used for show, thermoregulation, and protection)
Had entrance legs shorter than rear legs, (highly effective however gradual)

Stegosaurinae are bigger
Enjoyable reality: When excavating dinosaur bones, paleontologists typically don’t have the luxurious of accumulating all the pieces. That may be because of: transportation limits (in the midst of nowhere), time restrictions on excavating, or assortment area limitations the place there simply isn’t area for containers and containers of microfossils. So as an alternative paleontologists typically have to pick probably the most important fossils to take away, and go away others.

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