I Know Dino Podcast Present Notes: Leaellynasaura (Episode 71)

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Episode 71 is all about Leaellynasaura, a polar ornithischian that will have burrowed to maintain heat.

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On this episode, we talk about:

Small, herbivorous ornithischian
Described in 1989, and named after Leaellyn Wealthy, the daughter of the 2 paleontologists (Tom Wealthy and Patricia Vickers-Wealthy) who discovered the fossils

The identify amicagraphica means “good friend writing” and is in honor of the Buddies of the Museum of Victoria and the Nationwide Geographic Society

Discovered two almost full skeletons and two fragmentary skulls and a few enamel
The holotype is of a juvenile

It was a polar dinosaur that lived within the Antarctic Circle (on the time Victoria, Australia was within the Antarctic Circle)
A lot hotter within the Cretaceous than right this moment, although there have been lengthy days and lengthy nights relying on the time of 12 months
Dinosaur Cove is a fossil mattress that was named in 1980. Different dinosaurs discovered there have been specimens of Atlascopcosaurus and an unnamed dinosaur associated to Allosaurus

In 2015 the land subsequent to Dinosaur Cove was put up on the market. Greg Denney, an newbie dinosaur fossil hunter, his household has owned the property for many years however he mentioned another person must take it to the following stage and construct a museum (with a pair million {dollars})
Leaellyn was 12 years previous once they named the dinosaur

In an open letter to Ranger Rick journal, Leaellyn Wealthy wrote, “After I was two, I had a e-book referred to as My Little Dinosaur. It was a few boy who discovered a stay dinosaur in a cave close to his home. I began wanting a dinosaur too. My dad labored with dinosaurs in a museum…so I requested him to get me one. [You] can simply think about how I felt once I first noticed the fossils of my very personal dinosaur. Thanks Mum and Dad!

Her father mentioned, “I by no means promised her a dwelling one. However she obtained one, despite the fact that she needed to await it” (waited 10 years)

Tom and Patricia have been married and companions in science for 50 years
Additionally they found one other dinosaur, Timimus, named after their son Tim

Leaellynasaura was about 6.5 to 10 ft (2-3 m) lengthy and a pair of ft (60 cm) tall on the hips
Bipedal, warm-blooded
Lived in temperatures between 21 and 50 levels F

Grew rapidly throughout first 3 years, then grew extra slowly after (primarily based on histological research of femurs present in 1999, after the preliminary discovery)
Might have grown first in early years to extra simply regulate physique temperature after which as soon as it was massive sufficient, didn’t must develop throughout robust instances

Leaellynasaura had a extremely lengthy tail (greater than 70 vertebrae in its tail and a few scientists suppose it was 75 p.c of its physique size); probably used the tail for show although it’s unclear

Tail might have been fluffy (wrap round physique for heat)
Might have burrowed, since three fossilized burrows have been present in Dinosaur Cove within the late 2000s (possibly to assist keep heat)
Leaellynasaura might have lived for weeks or months (as much as 4 months) at a time at midnight

Nonetheless obtained gentle from aurora (snow reflecting gentle shows) and the moon
Most likely didn’t hibernate, although don’t know for certain. Scientists used to suppose that as a result of the “progress rings” in its bones modified in thickness it slowed its metabolism down within the winter to hibernate, however scientists have since discovered related progress ring fluctations in dinosaurs that lived in tropical areas (wouldn’t have needed to hibernate), so it’s unclear whether or not or not Leaellynasaura hibernated

It had massive eyes and huge optic lobes, although which may be attributed to a juvenile, not adapting to low-light situations

Leaellynsaura is on 5,000 collector cash as a part of Perth Mint’s Australian Age of Dinosaurs sequence
Can see Leaellynasaura in a Dinosaur Petting Zoo in Australia (options dinosaur puppets that children can contact as they study concerning the dinosaurs)
From July 27 2015 till July 2016, there’s an exhibition referred to as Wildlife of Gondwana on the Nationwide Wool Museum in Geelong that reveals plenty of polar dinosaurs, together with Leaellynasaura (exhibition primarily based on the analysis of Tom and Patricia)

Has been described as a hypsilophodontid, an iguanodontian, and an ornithischian
Unclear the place in Ornithopoda Leaellynasaura belongs

Ornithopods are ornithischians that began small and have become bigger and populous, particularly within the Cretaceous

They’d nonetheless tails to assist steadiness, and later ornithopods grazed on all fours and semi-quadrupedal
They have been nice at chewing, like a contemporary cow

Enjoyable Truth: Claws can inform you a large number. In response to an article by Stephan Lautenschlager printed within the Proceedings of the Royal Society titled “Morphological and practical variety in therizinosaur claws and the implications for theropod claw evolution,” totally different therizinosaurs seemingly used for claws for various functions. He checked out three totally different makes use of of a claw: scratching and digging, hooking and pulling, and piercing.Principally it boiled all the way down to shorter/wider claws being good for just about all three actions. However longer/thinner claws most likely couldn’t have been used for scratch-digging. So we will get just a little little bit of an concept about their conduct simply by their claw form.

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