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I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Argentinosaurus (Episode 97)

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    Episode 97 is all about Argentinosaurus, a titanosaur from Argentina, and one of many largest recognized dinosaurs.

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    On this episode, we talk about:

    • The dinosaur of the day: Argentinosaurus
    • Title means “Argentine lizard”
    • Titanosaur from what’s now Argentina
    • One of many largest recognized dinosaurs, lived within the late Cretaceous
    • Newest “largest dinosaur” is Dreadnoughtus
    • First fossils discovered by a rancher in 1987 (thought a leg was a giant piece of petrified wooden), additionally discovered a big vertebra, concerning the measurement of an grownup human male
    • Described by José F. Bonaparte and Rodolfo Coria in 1993
    • Sort species is Argentinosaurus huinculensis
    • Holotype solely has 6 vertebrae from the again, 5 partial vertebrae from the hip space, ribs on the fitting of the hip, a part of a rib from the flank, and the fitting fibula
    • Different Argentinosaurus bones which have been discovered embrace an incomplete femur, which mixed with the opposite bones helps scientists estimate its measurement
    • Precise measurement of Argentinosaurus is unsure
    • One vertebra was 5.2 ft (1.59 m) tall
    • Gregory S. Paul estimated Argentinosaurus to be between 98-115 ft (30-35 m) lengthy and weigh 80-100 tons
    • The skeletal restoration on the Museo Carmen Funes is 140 ft (39.7 m) lengthy and 24 ft (7.3 m) excessive, and has the principally full fibula
    • In 2006 Carpenter estimated Argentinosaurus to be 98 ft (30 m) lengthy, based mostly on Saltasaurus
    • Different estimates based mostly on Saltasaurus, Opisthocoelicaudia, and Rapetosaurus say Argentinosaurus is between 72-85 ft (22-26 m) lengthy
    • In 2004, Mazzetta and others estimated Argentinosaurus to weigh 73 tons (Argentinosaurus is the heaviest recognized sauropod)
    • One other estimate is that Argentinosaurus weighed 83 tons based mostly on the quantity of a reconstruction
    • In 2013, Invoice Sellers, Rodolfo Corio, Lee Margetts and others revealed a examine in PLOS One about Argentinosaurus‘ pace. They digitally reconstructed Argentinosaurus, and estimated its gait and pace with musculoskeletal evaluation. They discovered it might go as quick as 5 mph (2 m/s)
    • They used a laser to scan the skeleton within the Argentine museum
    • Herbivore, with an extended neck it used to achieve up into confiers or sweep the bottom for ferns and bushes
    • Swallowed gastroliths to grind up the meals in its abdomen
    • They in all probability traveled in herds for protections (juveniles had been susceptible to predators)
    • Fossilized eggs of sauropods associated to Argentinosaurus have been discovered, and it’s doable that a whole bunch of Argentinosaurus adults got here collectively every year to nest, on vast, flat floodplains
    • Titanosaurs are a bunch of sauropods, very massive herbivores, that lived over the past 30 million years of the Mesozoic Period. Some titanosaur species are the most important land-living animals found, however in lots of circumstances, scientists have discovered incomplete fossils
    • The identify Titanosaur got here from the Titans of Historic Greek mythology
    • The household, Titanosauridae, was named after Titanosaurus, an incomplete fossil (solely a partial femur and two incomplete caudal vertebrae) discovered by Richard Lydekker in 1877. Some scientists suppose there’s not sufficient info for Titanosauridae to be a genus
    • Titanosaurs had been the final group of sauropods. They lived about 90 to 66 million years in the past and had been the dominant herbivores. They changed different sauropods, like diplodocids and brachiosaurids
    • Titanosaur fossils have been discovered on all continents, together with Antarctica. Probably the most titanosaurs lived within the southern continents, which was then a part of the supercontinent Gondwana.
    • In comparison with different sauropods, Titanosaurs had small heads. Their heads had been additionally vast, with massive nostrils, and crests fashioned by nasal bones
    • Titanosaurs had spoon-like, or peg or pencil like enamel that had been very small
    • Titanosaurs weren’t choosy eaters. They’d a broad eating regimen which included cycads and conifers, in addition to (surprisingly) palms and grasses, such because the ancestors of rice and bamboo (proof that dinosaurs and grasses advanced collectively)
    • They tended to have common size necks, at the least for sauropods, and whip-like tails, however not so long as the Diplodocus tail
    • Titanosaurs additionally had slimmer pelvis’ in comparison with some sauropods, and wider chests, which gave them a broader stance (they usually left broader tracks)
    • They’d stocky forelimbs that had been often longer than their hindlimbs, they usually had strong again bones as an alternative of hollowed out again bones
    • Enjoyable reality: The world’s largest synchrotron is the Giant Hadron Collider (LHC) constructed by CERN from 1998-2008. It maintains 13 TeV (tera electron volts) between its two beams. To elucidate what 1 TeV is they are saying “1 TeV is concerning the vitality of movement of a flying mosquito. What makes the LHC so extraordinary is that it squeezes vitality into an area about one million million [AKA a trillion] instances smaller than a mosquito” It’s additionally 17miles in circumference. By comparability the European Synchrotron is 6GeV (about 1/2,000th the ability of the LHC) and is about ½ a mile in circumference. And the Stanford Synchrotron is 3GeV (half the European Synchrotron) and is about 1/eighth a mile in circumference.

    This episode was delivered to you by:

    The Royal Tyrrell Museum. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is positioned in southern Alberta, Canada. One of many prime paleontological analysis institutes on this planet, the complete museum is devoted to the science of paleontology. It’s undoubtedly a should see for each dinosaur fanatic. Extra info will be discovered at tyrrellmuseum.com.



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