Episode 362: Herding sauropodomorphs within the Early Jurassic

Episode 362 is all about Amurosaurus, a lambeosaurine hadrosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Russia.

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On this episode, we focus on:

Information:

• The brand new ceratopsian, Sierraceratops turneri, was named from New Mexico (after beforehand being known as Torosaurus) supply
• Over 100 eggs and 80 skeletons of Mussaurus present that they could have lived in age segregated teams supply
• A brand new dinosaur was present in Internal Mongolia supply
• “Huge John” the Triceratops was auctioned for $7.74 million, about 5 instances the estimated worth. supply
• A newly restored Plateosaurus is on show on the Pure Historical past Museum in Vienna supply
• The Moab Museum in Utah has a brand new Apatosaurus femur on show supply
• The Science Museum of Minnesota has a brand new exhibit, Final Dinosaurs supply
• The Journey Museum and Studying Heart in South Dakota has a brand new duplicate of Tinker the T. rex on show supply
• Three dinosaur statues had been stolen from Dinosaur Park and located broken at a frat celebration on the College of Texas Austin supply
• Jack Horner and paleoartist Fabio Pastori are promoting a set of 100 NFTs to boost cash for paleontological analysis supply

The dinosaur of the day: Amurosaurus

• Lambeosaurine hadrosaur that lived within the Late Cretaceous in what’s now Russia (Udurchukan Formation)
• Seemed much like Corythosaurus, cumbersome construct, duckbill, robust legs
• Largely walked on two legs (facultative biped)
• Estimated to be 20 ft (6 m) lengthy
• Gregory Paul estimated 26 ft (8 m) lengthy and weighed 6,600 lb (3,000 kg)
• Most likely had a hole crest on its head (however crest has not been discovered)
• Herbivorous
• Had a dental battery
• Maxillary enamel had been “slim, diamond-shaped, completely straight, and symmetrical”
• Had a large coracoid (a part of the shoulder)
• Had a strong ulna (a part of the forearm)
• Had a gracile radius (different a part of the forearm)
• Had a strong femur
• Had elongated pencil-shaped metacarpals (within the arms) and strong metatarsals (within the toes)
• Kind and solely species is Amurosaurus riabinini
• Described in 1991 by Yuri Bolotsky and Sergei Kurzanov
• Genus identify means “Amur lizard”
• Genus identify comes from the Amur River, close to the place Amurosaurus was discovered (known as Heilongjiang or “Black Dragon River” in Mandarin), is the border of Russia and China
• Species identify in honor of paleontologist Anatoly Riabinin
• Fossils all present in one bonebed that was found in 1984
• Temporary historical past of the realm:
• In 1902 Colonel Manakin collected the primary dinosaur bones (remoted bones) from Cossack fisherman close to the Amur River on the Chinese language aspect of the river
• Within the summers of 1916 and 1917 the Geological Committee of Russia excavated the realm. In 1925 and 1930 Riabinin stated the hadrosaur bones had been considerable within the space, and he named two: Trachodon amurense and Saurolophus krystofovici (now each thought of to be nomina dubia–too fragmentary and no distinctive options)
• In 1957 Rozhdestvensky first talked about dinosaur fossils from the Russian a part of the Amur area
• In 1984 Yuri Bolotsky and the Amur Complicated Built-in Analysis Institute of the Far Japanese Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered a big bonebed within the space
• Solely 200 sq. meters had been excavated as of 1991, and several other hundred bones had been discovered, principally from lambeosaurines (90% belonged to Amurosaurus, principally juveniles)
• The remaining are hadrosaurines like Kerberosaurus. Additionally discovered turtle fragments and theropod enamel and plenty of toothmarks on the bones (predators or scavengers)
• In 1991 Bolotsky and Kurzanov described a number of the lambeosaurine fossils as Amurosaurus riabinini
• Greater than 90% of the bones discovered are from lambeosaurines, however the “skeletons are full disarticulated and combined”
• Primarily based on the skeletons being combined up and the best way the lengthy bones had been oriented, the bones had been in all probability deposited in a river or floodplain form of atmosphere. However as a result of the bones are so properly preserved, together with fragile cranium items, they in all probability weren’t transported over a protracted distance
• The random approach the bones had been oriented could imply they had been abruptly stopped in being transported earlier than fossilizing
• Solely the holotype cranium items and a few vertebrae are recognized to be from the identical particular person
• Holotype is a left maxilla (higher jaw bone) and dentary (decrease jaw bone)
• Holotype cranium has sutures
• However, so many bones discovered within the bonebeds, can assemble a lot of the cranium and skeleton
• Many distinctive options within the cranium, and the form of the decrease arm bone (ulna)
• Had bones on the roof of the cranium that appeared to help a crest
• In 2004, Pascal Godefroit and others re-described Amurosaurus
• Mentioned that based mostly on lambeosaurini (Lambeosaurus, Corythosaurus, Nipponosaurus, and many others.) and parasaurolophini (Parasaurolophus, Charonosaurus) dinosaurs being present in North America and Asia, appears there was lots of migration between Asia and North America, nevertheless it’s not at all times clear which approach they went (east to west or west to east)
• However, all recognized basal lambeosaurines are from Asia, so appears lambeosaurines originated in Asia
• In 2011, Pascal Godefroit and others wrote about current advances on the research of hadrosaurid dinosaurs in Heilongjiang
• Discovered that lower than 2% of the bones excavated from the Amurosaurus bonebed had potential tooth marks, so scavenging was both restricted or there was a lot meals for scavengers they didn’t should scrape on the bones
• Primarily based on the dimensions and frequency of femurs, tibiae, humeri, and dentaries, there are principally late juveniles and subadult Amurosaurus. Attainable that youthful Amurosaurus lived separated from adults and rejoined the herd after they had been extra grown
• Most people are small to medium-sized, however some remoted bones counsel Amurosaurus may get giant, perhaps even bigger than Shantungosaurus giganteus (as much as 48 ft or 14.7 m lengthy)
• Amurosaurus lived in “savannah-like valleys with oasis vegetation alongside the banks of lakes and river” in a heat and comparatively arid local weather
• Can see an AR view of Amurosaurus with Google’s Arts and Tradition’s Meet an Historic Animal characteristic

Enjoyable Reality:
Sierraceratops is at the very least the 14th named Chasmosaurine from the final 9 million years of the Mesozoic.

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