I Know Dino Podcast: Torvosaurus Gurneyi

Episode 16 is all about Torvosaurus Gurneyi, one the largest, baddest carnivores in modern-day Portugal.

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On this episode, we focus on:

The dinosaur of the day: Torvosaurus gurney, which suggests “savage lizard”
Torvosaurus gurneyi is known as after the paleo-artist James Gurney, who created Dinotopia (printed in 1992)

Torvosaurus gurneyi is a brand new species present in Portugal, which lived on the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and components of France), about 150 million years in the past (Jurassic)
Torvosaurus was dug up in 2003 (an novice paleontologist discovered a part of a jawbone). In addition they discovered the shinbone, tooth, and components of the tail vertebrae
Christophe Hendrickx, who was a Ph.D. pupil on the New College of Lisbon in Portugal, found Torvosaurus gurneyi when finding out what scientists thought have been the bones of Torvosaurus tanneri (associated species, however lived in North America’s Rocky Mountains within the Jurassic)

Research was printed in PLOS ONE in March 2014
Now there are two species of Torvosaurus, Torvosaurus tanneri and Torvosaurus gurneyi
Torvosaurus tanneri was named in 1979. Massive, heavy, bipedal carnivore that might develop to 33 toes (one of many largest of its time)

However some key variations (between Torvosaurus gueryni and Torvosaurus tanneri): Torvosaurus gueryni higher jaw had fewer tooth, bone and tail vertebrae additionally seemed completely different
Torvosaurus tanneri had greater than 11 tooth (Torvosaurus gurneyi has lower than 11); the mouth bones even have completely different shapes
Torvosaurus gurneyi had four-inch lengthy tooth that have been blade-shaped, with sharp claws on its forearms to tear into prey

It was 32 toes lengthy
The ecosystem the place Torvosaurus lived was most likely just like the Serengeti. In line with Holtz, there have been a number of small, medium, and huge carnivores dwelling alongside one another, identical to lions, noticed hyenas, leopards, and jackals reside alongside one another
Lourinhã, Portugal, the place Torvosaurus was discovered has a number of fossils (a number of cliffs over a shoreline). Within the Jurassic, it had a big river and many vegetation, and various set of dinosaurs

Might have been the largest predator in Europe (a minimum of to date)
Torvosaurus gurneyi most likely grew so massive as a result of it was surrounded by so many herbivores (stegosaurs and sauropods)
Torvosaurus most likely hunted massive prey, however may have been a scavenger

Torvosaurus gurneyi was smaller than T.rex, however nonetheless had a robust chunk
Torvosaurus gueryni lived about 80 million years earlier than T-rex
In line with paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz Jr., Torvosaurus was a “massive bruiser predator” that means it used brute drive to kill prey, as a substitute of velocity or shock

Torvosaurus most likely took an enormous chunk out of prey and waited for it to bleed to demise (in comparison with T-rex which will have crushed prey with its jaws)
The Torvosaurus discovery modifications the best way scientists view dinosaurs in Europe in the course of the Jurassic. Earlier than, it was thought that many of the dinosaurs there have been dwarf measurement, evolving smaller to reside on the numerous islands that shaped Europe again then
Torvosaurus gurneyi was a part of the group megalosaurs

Huxley named the household Megalosauridae in 1869
It was a “wastebasket” group, that means it included a big number of unrelated species (Dryptosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Indosaurus, Velociraptor)
Lived within the mid to late Jurassic about 170-148 Ma

Thomas R. Holtz provided an alternate group definition as all dinosaurs extra intently associated to Megalosaurus than to Spinosaurus, Allosaurus, or fashionable birds
Additionally generally known as Torvosauridae
They’re primative theropods; small to massive sized, with sharp tooth and had three claws on every hand

Huge predators are normally more durable to search out than prey, so not a lot is thought about megalosaurs
However, megalosaurus did look just like T-rex, and will have been coated in proto-feathers
Enjoyable reality: 108 dinosaur species have been present in Britain, to date. Through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, Britain was a “land bridge” between North America and Eurasia, so a number of dinosaurs migrated and developed round there (together with Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, Neovenator, Eotyrannus, and Cetiosaurus

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