I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Psittacosaurus (Episode 92)

Episode 92 is all about Psittacosaurus, a hadrosauroid from Italy whose holotype has the nickname “Antonio.”

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On this episode, we talk about:

• The dinosaur of the day: Psittacosaurus
• Title means “parrot lizard”
• Ceratopsian that lived within the Early Cretaceous in what’s now Asia (Mongolia, Siberia, China, and perhaps Thailand)
• Earliest recognized ceratopsian
• First found in 1922 throughout the American Museum of Pure Historical past’s third expedition to the Gobi Desert. They discovered a virtually full cranium
• First described in 1923 by Henry Fairfield Osborn
• Kind genus of the household Psittacosauridae, which Osborn named in 1923
• One of the crucial well-known dinosaurs, with greater than 400 people discovered (plenty of full skeletons, and all kinds of ages)
• 17 species have been named Psittacosaurus, however solely Sep 11 are thought-about legitimate (highest variety of legitimate species assigned to a non-avian dinosaur genus)
• Kind species is P. mongoliensis
• Kind specimen of P. mongoliensis is of a juvenile
• Totally different species have completely different cranium shapes (size, peak, roundness, and bony lumps)
• Species embody mongoliensis, lujiatunensis, neimongoliensis, xinjiangensis, sinensis, meileyingensis, ordosensis, sibricus
• Osborn additionally named one other specimen Protiguanodon mongoliense, pondering it was an ancestor of Iguanodon. But it surely turned out to not be completely different sufficient from Psittacosaurus, (Osborn stated it had completely different enamel and snout options), and in 1958 Yang Zhongjian, a Chinese language paleontologist, renamed it to Psittacosaurus protiguanodonensis, although these days it’s often thought-about to be Psittacosaurus mongoliensis and Protiguanodon and Psittacosaurus protiguanodonensis are thought-about to be junior synonyms of P. mongoliensis
• C.C. Younger named a brand new species, P. osborni, in 1931 after Henry Osborn (partial cranium present in Interior Mongolia). Some suppose it’s a synonym for P. mongoliensis, others suppose it’s legitimate.
• Psittacosaurus sibiricus had some bony horns, nevertheless it’s considered convergent evolution
• Psittacosaurus mongoliensis skulls are flat on high
• P. sinensis have smaller skulls than different Psittacosaurus and have fewer enamel than P. mongoliensis. Additionally, the cheek bones flare out sideways that appear to be horns and the cranium is wider than it’s lengthy. Additionally has a smaller “horn” behind the attention (additionally seen in P. sibiricus)
• P. xinjiangensis has a cheek horn that’s flattened on the entrance finish
• P. meileyingensis has the shortest snout and shortest neck frill, and a really spherical cranium
• P. neimongoliensis has a slim cranium in comparison with different species and is the smallest recognized species
• P. lujiatunensis is well-known from a examine of three specimens in 2007. Had a sophisticated mind, could have had habits as complicated as Tyrannosaurus (could have constructed nests, cared for younger, and slept like birds)
• Didn’t have a lot ornamentation (elaborate horns or neck frills) however some had bony lumps that grew from their skulls
• Had 4 digits on the hand, as a substitute of 5, like different ornithischians and ceratopsians, and 4 toes, much like small ornithischians
• As much as 6.5 ft (2 m) lengthy, and weighed as much as 44 lb (20 kg)
• Physique had scales, giant and small, in irregular patterns
• In 2008 a examine of two completely different Psittacosaurus people discovered that its pores and skin was thick (about 40 layers) and will have helped defend in opposition to predators
• In 2010, Ford and Martin stated Psittacosaurus could have been semi-aquatic, swimming with its tail like a crocodile. That is based mostly on specimens being discovered close to lakes, lengthy chevrons within the tails (bristles on tail could have helped kind a fin), and the place of the nostrils and eyes
• Had a proportionately giant mind, so in all probability had complicated behaviors
• Good sense of odor and imaginative and prescient, and will have been cathemeral
• No direct proof that they cared for his or her younger, however could have occurred
• Quadrupedal as a juvenile
• Between ages 4-6, their legs grew an they turned bipedal
• Couldn’t rotate or attain the bottom with its forearms
• In 2007 Phil Senter did a examine of P. neimongoliensis and P. mongoliensis and located its forelimbs had been too brief to achieve the bottom (55% so long as the hindlimbs) in order that they had been bipedal. Additionally too brief to dig and convey meals to the mouth
• That they had parrot-like beaks and cheek enamel to eat fiberous vegetation
• Had a tall cranium that was brief in size, and in some circumstances is nearly spherical
• In all probability a selective browser
• Had a beak, in all probability lined in keratin (used to crop vegetation to eat)
• Had self-sharpening enamel to crop and slice vegetation (couldn’t grind or chew meals, used gastroliths)
• Higher and decrease jaws within the cranium labored like a single unit, with out inside joints (akinetic skulls); had just one joint within the jaw joint, so it might slide its decrease jaws ahead and backward to shear meals
• Juvenile Psittacosaurus not discovered with gastroliths, so its doable its weight loss program modified with age (much less fibrous at first)
• P. gobiensis was discovered to have plenty of gastroliths in its intestine, so it could have used its beak to crack nuts and seeds and use the stones to assist digest
• Was a prey animal. One juvenile Psittacosaurus‘ stays are present in a carnivorous mammal (first recognized instance of a mammal that ate a dinosaur)
• A herd of 6 Psittacosaurus had been discovered buried by a volcanic mudflow and reveals that they probably lived in teams (they had been completely different ages). The younger ones had worn enamel, which implies they chewed their very own meals. They in all probability lived collectively for cover, to assist with discovering meals, or probably serving to with the nest
• In 2004, 34 juvenile Psittacosaurus skeletons and the cranium of an grownup had been discovered within the Yixian Formation. All of the juveniles are below the grownup, which can imply the grownup was caring for the younger. However in 2013 it was identified that the grownup didn’t belong with the nest and had been glued onto it, and the grownup was really 6 years previous (wouldn’t attain maturity till age 10). Additionally unlikely that one grownup would have so many juveniles directly
• In 2014, a examine of the 6 yr previous discovered that there could have been “post-hatching cooperation” so it could have been caring for the infants. Some trendy birds do that
• Hatchlings have been found, together with one on the AMNH that’s 4-5 in (11-13 cm) lengthy and one additionally at AMNH that’s 1.8 in (4.6 cm) lengthy. They’re each P. mongoliensis and from Mongolia
• Quill like feathers on the tail
• One was discovered with lengthy filaments on the tail
• Bristle-like integumentary constructions had been discovered on the tail of a Psittacosaurus present in China (in all probability the Yixian Formation) in 2002, (could have been used for show). Not assigned to a species, however was illegally taken from China and bought by a German museum, after which described whereas awaiting repatriation. That they had the identical fluorescence as scaled in ultraviolet gentle, so could have been keratinized
• One Psittacosaurus had a pathology. It’s P. mongoliensis, discovered within the Yixian Formation. It had an an infection close to the mid a part of the suitable fibula. It has a big spherical pit, from lack of blood provide and has giant swelling alongside the decrease a part of the bone. It’s unclear how this occurred
• Ceratopsia is a bunch of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in North America and Asia within the Cretaceous
• That they had parrot-like beaks and cheek enamel to eat fiberous vegetation
• They had been ornithiscians
• Additionally had a frill (used for protection, regulating physique temperature, attracting mates, or signaling hazard)
• In all probability traveled in herds and will then stampede if threatened
• Enjoyable reality: 
  

  Egg	Weight	Measurement	Measurement relative to rooster	energy	fats	Protein
  “USDA Massive” Rooster egg	Avg 2 ounces (57g)	46cc	1	90	6g	7g
  Ostrich Egg	Usually ~3 kilos (1.4Kg)	~1,100cc -> Circum=15.8” (40cm)	~24	~2,000	~150g	170g
  The Largest Dinosaur Egg (I might discover) Oviraptorosaur From China		>60cm L x >20cm D -> ~18,000cc	~400	Asum’d ratio 36,000	Asum’d ratio 2,400g	Asum’d ratio 2,800g
  Quail Egg	~9g (.3oz)		Lower than 1/5	14	1g	1.2g

  Regardless of ostrich eggs being the biggest they’re apparently the smallest in proportion to the chook laying them. Ostriches lay about 50 a yr, equal to 1,200 rooster eggs or 3 large oviraptorosaur eggs, all equal to about 2 dozen rooster eggs per week.

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