I Know Dino Podcast: Deinocheirus

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Episode 10 is all about Deinocheirus, a dinosaur that for 50 years was solely identified by its big arms.

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On this episode, we talk about:

The dinosaur of the day: Deinocheirus mirificus, which suggests “horrible hand”
Deinocheirus lived within the Cretaceous, about 70 million years in the past

Solely the arms of Deinocheirus have been present in 1965 in Mongolia’s Gobi desert (nothing new discovered till 2009)
For 50 years, all scientists new was that it had big arms, every 8 toes lengthy, with three 8-inch claws

This result in many theories: Deinocheirus was a T-rex due to the claws, or a large sloth-like creature. It could have been over 100 toes lengthy

Dr. Yuong-Nam Lee from the Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Assets and his crew (which included Dr. Phil Currie, from Episode 4: Tarbosaurus) discovered two well-preserved specimens. In line with Lee, “they inform us Deinocheirus was a lot weirder than anybody may have imagined.”

Lee and his crew discovered Deinocheirus in August 2009 at Mongolia’s Nemegt Formation. Poachers had already taken bones from the positioning however they discovered the left arm of a Deinocheirus and a largely full skeleton (although it was lacking elements of its backbone, proper arm, and fingers)
Currie, mentioned their crew at all times investigated looted quarries, in case they discovered something of significance. In 2011, a Belgian scientist known as Currie as a result of he thought he had discovered the lacking Deinocheirus fossils. It turned out to be from the identical specimen that they had present in 2009.

Dr. Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences’ Paleontological Heart and his colleagues analyzed and put collectively the fossils.
Deinocheirus was described in Nature journal in 20
Initially Deinocheirus was categorised as a carnosauria, within the theropod group. However now it’s thought of a primitive ornithomimosaurian, associated to the Garudimimus and Beishanlong, within the household Deinocheiridae

Each Deinocheirus and Spinosaurus are examples of dinosaurs that look utterly totally different from what scientists thought
Due to how distinctive Deinocheirus truly seems to be, Lee mentioned that is “a real cautionary story in predicting physique types from partial skeletons.”

The dinosaur has been likened to Jar Jar from Star Wars. It was huge and gradual, with a horse like head and hump again.

Deinocheirus wass 35 toes lengthy and 6 tons, nearly as huge as T-rex. However it didn’t have a powerful chew. As an alternative it had a duck like snouth with no tooth

It walked upright with 6-feet lengthy arms out in entrance. Its head was 3 toes lengthy
Deinocheirus had a slim physique. It had ten neck vertebrae that have been low and lengthy, every one was shorter the additional away it was from the cranium. This implies Deinocheirus had an S-curved again, as a result of it had such a big cranium

Deinocheirus had 12 again vertebrae, with the longest one within the again (at 8.5 instances the peak of the centrum). That is nearly as excessive because the ratio of neural spines in Spinosaurus
Dr. Chinzorig mentioned Deinocheirus had tall dorsal spines like Spinosaurus, truncated hoof-like claws on the toes (so it wouldn’t sink in muddy floor) and ponderous hind legs like tyrannosaurids, with sauropod-like hips, and a hadrosaur-like duckbill
Deinocheirus additionally had thick bony spines that caught up from its spine, which gave it a sail construction (although it was thicker than the sail of Spinosaurus)

Deinocheirus has additionally been described as having a camel-like hump and neck of an ostrich
Its spherical, flat beak was coated in keratin

Its decrease jaw was a lot larger and deeper in comparison with its slender higher jaw (higher jaw comparable in measurement to tyrannosaur)

Deinocheirus blunt, brief claws have been just like the therizinosaur Alxasaurus, which used the claws for digging and gathering crops

The crew additionally discovered that Deinocheirus‘ tail was fused right into a pygostyle, which helps tail feathers in fashionable birds. So it in all probability had a fan of tail feathers
Deinocherius is technically an ornithomimosaur (ostrich-like dinosaur), that are identified for being quick, however Deinocheirus is simply too huge

Most ostrich-like dinosaurs have been solely somewhat larger than people, so the evolving into such a large might be why it seemed so unusual
Scientists discovered chew marks which they assume means Deinocheirus was prey for Tarbosaurus
Dr. Currie mentioned its measurement in all probability helped defend it from Tarbosaurus

Deinocheirus was in all probability a megaomnivore (ate all the things)
Deinocheirus in all probability ate smooth crops, particularly ones that grew on the backside of streams and lakes. It in all probability used its duck invoice to get at them, after which sucked up the crops with its huge tongue inside its massive decrease jaw. To gring up its meals, it swallowed stones (like ostriches and different fashionable birds)

Lee and his crew discovered over 1,400 of those stones, known as gastroliths, contained in the Deinocheirus specimens they found

The crew additionally discovered fish stays, however which suggests Deinocheirus was usually in recent water and will eat something (together with fish, small vertebrates, and crops). It’s been described as a “garbage-disposal” kind of dinosaur that in all probability used its massive fingers to dig for meals or pull down branches

Deinocheirus is without doubt one of the largest ornithomimosaurs, nevertheless it had hole bones to maintain it lighter. Of bipedal dinosaurs, it had the most important arms
Deinocheirus couldn’t run (not like different ornithominosaurs)

Deinocheirus was in all probability diurnal
Its mind measurement in comparison with its physique was low and just like sauropods (not like different ornithomimosaurs that had proportional sized brains)
Deinocheirus is a part of the household Deinocheiridate, which lived 115 to 69 million years in the past

The household was named due to Deinocheirus‘ distinctive arms. Initially scientists thought Deinocheirus was a carnosaur, and the one different carnosaurian from the identical time interval in Mongolia was Tarbosaurus
Deinocheiridate is a part of the group ornithomimosaurus (ostrich dinosaurs)

Ornithomimosaur skulls have been small, with massive eyes and slender necks. Most had toothless beaks, although some primitive species had tooth

Ornithomimosaurs had lengthy arms with highly effective claws, and lengthy hind limbs with sturdy toes and hooflike claws. They have been in all probability the quickest dinosaurs, and so they had feathered, not scaly, hides

Ornithomimosaurs ate crops and plenty of have been discovered with gastroliths of their stomachs. They have been very ample, although some might have been omnivores that additionally ate small animals
Ornithomimosaurs might have been cathemeral, which suggests energetic throughout the day at brief intervals (not like the diurnal Deinocheirus)

Enjoyable reality: Primarily based on dinosaur bone construction, scientists imagine dinosaurs lived to be between 75 and 300 years outdated

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