Episode 446: Dinosaur-era Oceans and Darren Naish from Prehistoric Planet 2. Darren solutions our greatest questions like why Dreadnoughtus had inflatable sacs on its neck (however no longer Alamosaurus) and why Masiakasaurus didn’t have tooth identified of its mouth.
Interview:
Darren Naish, a paleontologist, writer, science communicator, and founding father of Tetrapod Zoology. He’s additionally the medical advisor and marketing consultant for Prehistoric Planet and Prehistoric Planet 2.
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The dinosaur of the day: Baptornis
- Associated with Hesperornis, and prefer Hesperornis, lived within the Western Inner Seaway
- Hesperornithiform that lived within the Overdue Cretaceous in what’s now Kansas (on the time used to be most commonly Western Inner Seaway), within the Niobrara Formation
- Additionally has been present in what’s now Sweden, the place the Turgai Strait joined the North Sea
- Seemed more or less like a penguin, however with an extended neck and tooth
- In regards to the dimension of a loon. Loons are about 28 to 32 in (71 to 81 cm) lengthy and weigh about 9 to twelve lb (4 to five.5 kg)
- Just right at diving and swimming
- Most likely a perfect swimmer, and no longer nice at shifting on land
- Decrease legs had been with regards to its frame and the ft stretched out sideways, so would have toppled over if shifting upright
- In keeping with how its decrease legs had been, would have pointed feet ahead and waddled or took small hops to transport round on land
- Ate fish. One specimen discovered with coprolites, about .4 in (1 cm) in diameter, and feature stays of a fish
- Most likely hunted smaller, extra cell prey in comparison to its relations that had been better
- Held prey in its beak
- Hesperornithiforms could have been in a position to carry and switch their prey as they swallowed it head first
- Sort species is Baptornis advenus
- Genus title way “diving chook”
- O.C. Marsh discovered the primary fossils within the 1870s, and named Baptornis in 1877
- Holotype comprises portions of the foot, which more than likely belong to split specimens. Now just one is the sort specimen
- In 1977, Larry Martin and Orville Bonner wrote a couple of fragmentary, immature Baptornis specimen (incorporated vertebrae, pelvis, portions of the legs and ft, portions of the jaw)
- Different specimens have since been discovered, lots of them juveniles
- Younger specimen discovered used to be present in a space that can imply it both travelled a protracted distance from shore or it nested someplace close by (an island?)
- Many Baptornis specimens are remoted bones
- Simplest 5 specimens had been discovered that experience greater than a unmarried bone/part, regardless that in 2015 Alyssa Bell and Luis Chiappe mentioned there could also be extra in museum collections
- Could have migrated, in line with fossils being discovered as some distance south as Kansas and as some distance north as Canada
- Lived in a subtropical to temperate local weather
- There used to be a 2nd species of Baptornis: Baptornis varneri, named in 2007 through James Martin and Amanda Cordes-Particular person. However later used to be reclassified as Brodavis, every other hesperornithiform that’s about two times the dimensions of Baptornis
- Fossils present in Sweden had been regarded as “Cretaceous flamingo” Parascaniornis stensioi (lived within the Overdue Cretaceous). However later used to be discovered to be Baptornis. Discovered a vertebra, so no longer sufficient to match and know if it’s a 2nd species
- Discovered there wasn’t sufficient to make Parascaniornis its personal species, however nonetheless unclear if it’s a junior synonym of Baptornis
A laugh Truth:
Dinosaurs like Spinosaurus, Hesperornis, and others that lived in and round water more than likely had webbed ft.
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