Episode 505: The State of Headbutting Science. Some headbutting animals undergo mind injury from the shock; Plus Mississippi has a brand new most full dinosaur; Histology might help inform a dinosaur fossil from different dinosaurs; and extra.
Information:
- Paleontologists reviewed what it means to have a dome-head and to headbutt like a pachycephalosaurid (and different prehistoric animals) supply
- Mississippi has a brand new most full dinosaur, however the species continues to be a thriller supply
- Histology can inform us if a fossil belonged to a dinosaur or one other sort of animals supply
Sponsor:
You may win a big Spinosaurus tooth, fossilized leaf, and extra by successful our Di-Know-It-All Problem! Every week from episode 502 to 509 we’ll learn a puzzle on the present which you’ll be able to enter to win by answering questions. This week you may enter at bit.ly/dinochallenge505 and if you happen to’re a patron you may reply the patron query at patreon.com/posts/108019451. All the principles for the problem are at bit.ly/dinochallenge24
Di-Know-It-All Problem:
You may win a big Spinosaurus tooth, fossilized leaf, and extra by successful our Di-Know-It-All Problem! Every week from episode 502 to 509 we’ll learn a puzzle on the present which you’ll be able to enter to win by answering questions. This week you may enter at bit.ly/dinochallenge505 and if you happen to’re a patron you may reply the patron query at patreon.com/posts/108019451. All the principles for the problem are at bit.ly/dinochallenge24
The dinosaur of the day: Saurornithoides
- Troodontid dinosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Mongolia (Djadochta Formation)
- Troodontids have been small, bird-like dinosaurs, with a lot of enamel, and carefully spaced enamel within the decrease jaw
- Had sickle claws on the second toes of their toes and have been in all probability sensible with good senses
- Saurornithoides had massive eye sockets and good depth notion
- Had an extended, low head, and a comparatively massive mind
- Had lengthy nasals
- Had an extended snout, had an extended tail
- Regarded sort of like a highway runner, however a lot greater, and with massive claws on its palms and toes
- Juvenile Saurornithoides mongoliensis described in 1993, with a leg that was extremely ossified (bony and inflexible), which can imply Saurornithoides was properly developed when it was born and didn’t want a lot, or any, parental care
- Sort species is Saurornithoides mongoliensis
- Genus identify means “lizard chicken kind” or “birdlike theropod” and refers to its bird-like cranium
- Fossils first present in 1923
- First troodontid skeleton discovered
- Holotype features a cranium and jaw, vertebrae, a part of the pelvis, leg, and foot
- Extra bones have been included however later discovered to be a part of a protoceratopsian
- Two different incomplete specimens discovered, however they don’t have sufficient detailed options, so solely often called a troodontids for now
- Described and named in 1924 by Henry Osborn
- Osborn in contrast it to Velociraptor
- On the time, Troodon formosus was identified solely from enamel and considered the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras, so Osborn in contrast Saurornithoides with Velociraptor, and urged “it might show to have avian relationships”
- Discovered it had totally different feeding habits from Velociraptor (not nearly as good at seizing swift shifting prey)
- Henry Osborn named three dinosaurs in that paper (Saurornithoides, Velociraptor, and Oviraptor) and wrote: “The skulls are completely dissimilar and terribly fascinating”
- Cranium first considered a chicken
- Urged it had an aquatic habitat, based mostly on particulars within the cranium and nostrils (however want limbs to know for positive)
- Mentioned it was a small operating theropod, “extra sluggish than Velociraptor, which was swift and raptorial in behavior, however remotely associated to it”
- Thought Saurornithoides was carnivorous or ovivorous (ate eggs)
- Extra Saurornithoides species have been named, however just one is taken into account legitimate (the sort species Saurornithoides mongoliensis)
- Contains Saurornithoides inequalis, which was Stenonychosaurus inequalis, and is now normally considered a junior synonym of Troodon formosus
- In 1982 Kenneth Carpenter described a hatchling Saurornithoides inequalis (now Troodon), based mostly on a partial left jawbone
- Mentioned it was just like one other Saurornithoides inequalis jaw however smaller
- Additionally Pectinodon asiamericanus grew to become Saurornithoides asiamericanus, then Troodon asiaamericanus
- And Troodon isfarensis grew to become Saurornithoides isfarensis, however is now identified to be a hadrosaur
- One other specimen was described in 1964 (first one collected by knowledgeable Mongolian paleontologist), and it was described in 1974 by Rinchen Barsbold as Saurornithoides junior
- Since then, extra troodontids discovered, and a 2009 research renamed the specimen as a brand new genus, Zanabazar, by Mark Norell and others (additionally re-examined Saurornithoides)
- Solely the sort species belongs to Saurornithoides
- Carefully associated to Zanabazar
- Zanabazar was referred to Saurornithoides due to similarities (Saurornithoides was the one different well-known troodontid with a cranium), and each being from the Late Cretaceous of Central Asia
- Norell and others did CT scans and located sufficient variations between Saurornithoides junior (Zanabazar) and Saurornithoides mongoliensis. Each have been solely identified from their holotypes
- Zanabazar is bigger than Saurornithoides
- Zanabazar cranium is 272 mm (10.7 in) lengthy, and Saurornithoides cranium is 189 mm (7.4 in) lengthy
- Zanabazar has extra enamel than Saurornithoides (118 in comparison with 108), the braincase seems barely totally different, and different particulars
- Numerous similarities with Saurornithoides however may very well be as a result of the similarities are plesiomorphic (ancestral characters) and shared with different troodontids, together with Troodon formosus
- Different dinosaurs that lived across the identical time and place embody ankylosaurs like Pinacosaurus, ceratopsians like Protoceratops, dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor, oviraptorosaurs like Oviraptor, troodontids like Archaeornithoides, alvarezsaurs, tyrannosaurs, and birds
- Different animals that lived across the identical time and place embody amphibians, crocodylomorphs, lizards, mammals, pterosaurs, and turtles
Enjoyable Reality:
We could have the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs to thank for grapes evolving (and due to this fact why we are able to eat raisins and drink wine).
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