I Know Dino Podcast: Qianzhousaurus


Episode 19 is all about Qianzhousaurus, a tyrannosaur nicknamed “Pinocchio Rex” due to its lengthy snout.

You possibly can hearken to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

On this episode, we focus on:

    • The dinosaur of the day: Qianzhousaurus sinensis, which is nicknamed “Pinocchio Rex” (due to its lengthy snout)
    • Scientists discovered a virtually full Qianzhousaurus skeleton at a building website in Ganzhou, a metropolis in China recognized for its fossils (first title comes from Qianzhou, the traditional title for Ganzhou)
    • The rationale the skeleton was so full was as a result of proper after it died, grime buried it, which protected it from water and air eroding it, in response to the research’s chief Junchang Lu, from the Chinese language Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing
    • The skeleton discovered has a well-preserved cranium, neck, spine and tail
    • Qianzhousaurus demonstrates that there have been long-snouted tyrannosaurs
    • Earlier than, solely two tyrannosaurs with lengthy snouts have been found (each in Mongolia)
    • However these have been juvenile skeletons, so scientists have been not sure if it was a brand new kind of dinosaur, or simply juvenile tyrannosaurs that will later develop into their lengthy snouts
    • Qianzhousaurus is twice the scale of the opposite long-snouted skeletons, which suggests it’s an grownup; additionally, its cranium is completely fused and resembles an grownup T-rex (there are a whole bunch of tyrannosaur skulls so scientists understand how the bones be a part of collectively and at what age)
    • Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a paleontologist on the College of Maryland (not affiliated with the research), stated Qianzhousaurus was undoubtedly an grownup
    • Qianzhousaurus had a nostril 35% longer than different dinosaurs of its measurement
    • It had a skinny, lengthy nostril with rows of tiny horns on the nostril (very totally different from the quick, muscular nostril on T-Rex)
    • Unclear what it used the nostril for, however scientists plan on utilizing pc fashions to see how Qianzhousaurus used its snout. Fashionable animals with lengthy snouts, like crocodiles, use them to catch fish
    • Qianzhousaurus was 29 ft lengthy, and weighed 1800 kilos
    • A part of the identical household as T-rex, Tyrannosauridae
    • Quianzhousaurus and T-rex lived on the similar time within the late Cretaceous
    • Qianzhousaurus had a weaker jaw than T-rex, so it had a weaker bit. It most likely ate smaller, simpler to catch prey than T-rex (which was a “heavy bruiser”)
    • As a result of Qianzhousaurus and T-rex ate totally different meals, they’d have lived in concord with one another
    • No long-snouted tyrannosaurs have been discovered within the Americas
    • Totally different tyrannosaurs might have lived and hunted alongside one another in Asia within the late Cretaceous
    • Due to Qianzhousaurus, scientists have named a brand new department of the tyrannosaur household, a clade known as Alioramini
    • This clade contains Qianzhousaurus and the 2 different long-snouted species (those present in Mongolia), known as Alioramus
    • Enjoyable reality: The dinosaur with the longest title was additionally present in China, in 1978 by the paleontologist Dong Zhiming. Zhiming named the dinosaur Micropachycephalosaurus, an ornithischian, which suggests “tiny thick-headed lizard”



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *