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I Know Dino Podcast: Muttaburrasaurus

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    Episode 49 is all about Muttaburrasaurus, a dinosaur from Australia.

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    On this episode, we focus on:

    • The dinosaur of the day: Muttaburrasaurus
    • Lived in Northeastern Australia within the early Cretaceous

    • Identify means Muttaburra lizard
    • Named after Muttaburra, the positioning in Queensland, Australia the place it was discovered
    • Described in 1963 from a partial skeleton (cranium, decrease jaws, components of the pelvis, a part of the entrance and hind limbs) by Doug Langdon (bones collected by Alan Bartholomai and Edward Dahms); species named in 1981 by Bartholomai and Ralph Molnar in 1981, in honor of Doug Langdon

    • Sort species is Muttaburrasurus langdoni
    • Skeleton present in Muttaburra was about 60% full (probably carcass floated out to sea from close by land then sank and fossilized)
    • Doug Langdon mentioned he discovered the bones in a dry creek mattress (he rode previous them); He mentioned ““I used to be mustering cattle and it was a dry season so there wasn’t a lot grass round and I occurred to experience all the way down to this waterhole to take a look for any cattle, and there was none there, so I rode on and I rode proper previous the bones”

    • First fossils discovered on Douglas Langdon’s property in 1963, however took a while to gather, and his sheep and cattle unintentionally wore a few of the bones down
    • Among the bones on Doug Langdon’s property have been taken by locals as souvenirs, although many returned when native authorities arrange an amnesty for lacking items
    • Tooth discovered at different websites, one in all them Lightning Ridge (opalised tooth), different skulls have additionally been since discovered

    • Two recognized Muttaburrasaurus skulls, have barely completely different crests (one, the “Dunluce cranium”, second one discovered, has a shorter nasal crest and is barely older, so crest could have modified over time)
    • Skulls may be completely different for women and men
    • Or could possibly be completely different species

    • Present in Queensland and New South Wales (attainable second species of Muttaburrasaurus, from Lightning Ridge)
    • Additionally from Queensland is a second cranium from Huhenden (older and extra primitive), additionally remoted tooth and bones discovered southeast of Hughenden
    • Opalised tooth and shoulder blad (presumably a distinct species) additionally present in Lightning Ridge in New South Wales

    • In all probability 2-3 species of Muttaburrasaurus, however just one has been formally described
    • Fossils present in rocks that shaped a marine setting, which suggests shallow seas lined a variety of jap Australia in its time
    • Might have been a superb swimmer, primarily based on trackways, Australia’s Dinosaur Stampede Nationwide Monument. The three,000 footprints have been regarded as from dinosaurs stampeding to get away from a predator (with giant, three-toed footprints), however now paleontologist Anthony Romilio mentioned these prints have been of a wading Muttaburrasaurus like herbivore and the opposite prints have been from dinosaurs swimming in a prehistoric river

    • 26 ft (8 m) lengthy and weighed 3.1 brief tons (2.8 metric tons)
    • Debate over whether or not or not it was quadrupedal, however now most assume it was bipedal. Initially scientists thought it had a thumb spike, however the foot was lengthy and broad with 4 toes, so in all probability didn’t
    • No thumb spikes

    • Probably bipedal and quadrupedal (had weight bearing hoofs)
    • Might in all probability run (away from predators) however spent a lot of time on all fours
    • Seemed like an iguanodon, with lengthy stiff tail

    • Had brief forelimbs and an extended, stiff tail
    • Flat, broad cranium
    • Hole chamber, enlarged nasal cavity

    • Pointed snout with an enlarged, hole nasal muzzle (presumably used for show or to make distinctive calls, however no fossilized nasal tissue has been discovered, so it’s unclear
    • Highly effective jaws and tooth that might shear, however the best way tooth have been organized meant it couldn’t chew
    • Some used to assume it ate meat, however now assume it was shearing tooth

    • In 1981, Molnar thought it was an omnivore, however modified in 1995 to herbivore (with shearing tooth)
    • Had sturdy jaw muscle groups (rear a part of the cranium, the place muscle groups connected is deeper in comparison with different ornithopods)
    • As an alternative of frequently changing tooth, Muttaburrasaurus in all probability changed all of its tooth directly (had a tooth row that shaped a shearing floor as a substitute of a grinding one)

    • Had a beak
    • In all probability ate robust vegetation, like cycads
    • Herbivore, ornithopod

    • Ornithopod (“duck billed”) dinosaur, however had tooth extra like Triceratops (shearing tooth)
    • Initially Muttaburrasaurus was categorised as an Iguanodontidae, then later as Camptosauridae, Dryosauridae or Hypsilophodontidae. However now it’s a part of Rhabdodontidae
    • Molnar assigned it to Iguanodontidae, however in 2010 Andrew McDonald launched a examine that positioned it in Rhabdodontidae

    • Lived in conifer forests close to the sting of the inland Eromanga Sea
      In Lightning Ridge, there would have been additional lengthy days in summer season and further brief days in winter
    • Might have seen sauropods comparable to Diamantinasaurus, Wintonotitan and Austrosaurus; additionally ornithopod Atlascopcosaurus, additionally pterosaurs Mythunga and Aussiedraco
    • Muttaburrasaurus is without doubt one of the most full dinosaur skeletons in Australia (after Minmi, an ankylosaur), and it was the primary to be solid and mounted for show

    • Fewer than 20 acknowledged species in Australia to this point
    • Can see Muttaburrasaurus skeleton/solid on the Queensland Museum, Flinders Discovery Centre, and Nationwide Dinosaur Museum, all in Australia
    • The corporate Kellogg sponsored clearning up and placing Muttaburrasaurus on show within the museum

    • Muttaburrasaurus shall be one of many 10 dinosaurs in QUT’s The Dice, on show in December 2015
    • Can see “Mutt” a full sized fiberglass statue close to Most important Avenue on Hughenden
    • Additionally has a Muttaburrasaurus playground, Mimi, youngsters can climb via stomach, slide down her tail (additionally a kids’s e book)

    • Muttaburrasaurus appeared in a local people calendar, meant to lift cash for a faculty and an ambulance defibrillator. Folks posed bare with props, and one aged couple posed bare with a life sized Muttaburrasaurus duplicate
    • Muttaburrasaurus was in an episode of Strolling with Dinosaurs
    • Muttaburrasaurus seems in Land Earlier than Time III (a personality named Mutt and his father) and within the TV present

    • Additionally within the 1995 movie, Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana, a brief 30 minute movie a few younger Muttaburrasaurus that turns into separated from its mom
    • In April 2015, the city Muttaburra honored Doug Langdon (who handed away final November at age 82 from most cancers) with a particular horse race, Doug Langdon Memorial race (paid him tribute by carrying black arm bands — race committee and jockeys)
    • Muttaburrasaurus could turn out to be one in all Australia’s state fossils (Queensland)

    • To this point, solely two of Australia’s states have fossils, New South Wales (officiated by The Geological Survey of NSW) and Western Australia, which was picked primarily based on public submissions
      The concept of getting state fossils got here from the U.S.; first states with fossil emblems have been Louisiana (petrified palmwood), Most important (prehistoric plant Pertica quadrifaria) and Georgia (shark tooth) again in 1976 (good for tourism)
    • Australia’s first state fossil was introduced in 1995 (WA, a fish, Mcnamaraspis kaprios), chosen by a democratic course of (lecturers from a main faculty in Perth heard in regards to the US state fossils and lobbied the state authorities to have a state fossil, as an train for his or her college students
    • Authorities made a public name for fossils to contemplate as state fossils, the fish received primarily based on a petition signed by almost 1,000 folks and supporting letters from worldwide paleontologists

    • In 2013, the Queensland Museum revealed a kids’s e book, Blissful Birthday Muttaburrasaurus, to rejoice 50 years because the first bones from the dinosaur have been found
    • Rhabdodontids have been herbivores and ornithopods that lived within the Cretaceous
    • That they had deep skulls and jaws

    • Fossils have been present in Europe and Australia
    • David Weishampel and colleagues proposed the household in 2002
    • Relying on who you ask, Muttaburrasaurus is a part of this household. The unique definition didn’t embrace it, however Paul Sereno’s defintion that it’s the most inclusive clade, containing Rhabdodon priscus however not Parasaurolophus walkeri, would come with it

    • Others embrace Rhabdodon, Zalmoxes and Mochlodon
    • Enjoyable truth: Some ornithischian dinosaurs advanced to have giant beaks, after which as a result of their beaks might assist chop up their meals, they didn’t want entrance tooth anymore. Ultimately these teams misplaced their entrance tooth.



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