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I Know Dino Podcast: Anzu wyliei

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    Episode 17 is all about Anzu wyliei, nicknamed “the rooster from hell.”

    You’ll be able to take heed 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: Anzu wyliei, which is the identify of a feathered Mesopotamian demon
      • The wyliei identify comes from a boy named Wylie, a dinosaur fanatic and grandson of a Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh trustee
      • Dr. Matthew Lamanna from the Carnegie Museum of Pure Historical past and Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues and Dr. Tyler Lyson from the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past, and Dr. Emma Schachner from the College of Utah all studied Anzu
      • Dr. Tyler Lyson first discovered the bones of the third Anzu skeleton when he was an adolescent (on his uncle’s ranch in North Dakota)
      • Scientists discovered partial fossils of three skeletons in North and South Dakota, within the Hell Creek formation (shaped on the finish of the Cretaceous, and recognized for its T-rex and Triceratops fossils)
      • Anzu lived on a moist floodplain
      • Anzu was bird-like, with a bony crest on prime of head and a protracted tail
      • Anzu had a tall, skinny crest; large beak, sliding jaw joint (may have been used to eat vegetation and meat)
      • Anzu was concerning the dimension of a small automobile, with claws and feathers on its higher arms (a cross between an emu and a contemporary reptile)
      • Anzu was 11 ft lengthy, 5 ft tall on the hip, and weighed 440 to 660 kilos
      • It had a toothless beak, and the crest on its head is just like a cassowary
      • In all probability had feathers
      • Due to Anzu, paleontologists now know for positive that Anzu, Caenagnathus, and Chriostenotes are their very own group in Oviraptorosauria, and that Gigantoraptor (the biggest oviraptorosaur recognized, weighing 1.5 tons) additionally belongs to the Caenagnathidae group (some on this group are small, turkey-sized, however they’re very various group)
      • Despite the fact that Anzu’s head is unusual wanting, its physique is just like Velociraptor, which lived a couple of million years earlier
      • Anzu appears to have gotten lots of accidents. Two of the three Anzu specimens have accidents, one with a damaged and healed rib, the opposite with an arthritic toe bone brought on by a fracture the place a tendon ripped off a chunk of bone). It’s unclear whether or not Anzu fought amongst themselves or in opposition to bigger predators, like T-rex
      • In keeping with Dr. Sues and his crew, although local weather change could have contributed to dinosaurs going extinct, Anzu proves that dinosaurs had been nonetheless evolving and had been various even on the finish. This helps show it was the aestroid that killed dinosaurs
      • The three Anzu skeletons are within the Carnegie Museum of Pure Historical past in Pittsburgh (they helped determine Anzu)
      • Anzu is an Oviraptorosaur, whose identify comes from the primary skeleton present in 1924 that was on prime a dinosaur egg nest, and scientists thought it was stealing the eggs. However within the Nineteen Nineties, a child oviraptorid egg was discovered inside a nest, which confirmed Oviraptorosaur was a very good dad or mum simply defending its eggs
      • Caenagnathids, oviraptorids, and different species from China are intently associated, so paleontologists grouped them within the theropod group Oviraptorosauria
      • The identify Caenagnathus means “latest jaws.” The primary caenagnathids discovered had been considered shut kinfolk of birds like ostriches as a result of they’d comparable decrease jaws. However now scientists suppose this similarity developed convergently with trendy birds
      • The Caenagnathidae household, together with the household Oviraptoridae, is a part of the superfamily Caenagnathoidea
      • Caenagnathids are similar to Oviraptoridae, however they’ve distinct jaws (lengthy and shallow, not as highly effective a chew). The decrease jaws additionally had ridges and shelf-like buildings (crushing floor), and so they had been hole and air stuffed as a part of an air sac system. Caenagnathids are additionally lighter than Oviraptorids, with slender arms and lengthy legs
      • One other distinction between caenagnathids and oviraptorids is that caenagnathids tended to reside in humid floodplains, and oviraptorids lived in arid areas
      • There are about 12 named caenagnathid species, however not all could also be legitimate (some named from fragments of skeletons)
      • Enjoyable truth: Dinosaur eggs are present in many alternative sizes and styles. Most are spherical, and a few may be virtually 1 foot lengthy, although the smallest discovered up to now is simply about 1 inch lengthy. Fossilized eggs are laborious like rocks, however they keep their buildings.



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