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The Ornithopod Thread- Hadrosaurs, iguanodonts and kin

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  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Nice find. Another fine example of the versatility of dinosaur behaviour.
    wrote:
    The only other known dinosaur burrow was discovered in 2005 in Montana, US.

    I seem to remember a reported hadrosaur that was supposed to have been hibernating when it died. I wonder if this is the one they refer to?


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Here's a picture of Oryctodromeus cubicularis.
    200907101755460.jpg
    by James Hays, Fernbank Museum

    Taken from here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Nicknamed 'Antonio', the newly discovered 13 foot long Tethyshodros insularis was an island dwelling miniature version of the famous Iguanodon.
    According to Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, who led the project, Antonio is noteworthy on many counts. Dalla Vecchia, a researcher at both the Institut Català de Paleontologia and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, told Discovery News that this dinosaur:

    - is only the second ever dinosaur species named in Italy
    - is the most complete medium to large sized dinosaur ever found in Europe
    - could be one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons in the world
    - shows for the first time what close relatives to duck-billed dinosaurs looked like in detail
    Tethyshodros insularis means "island dweller hadrosaurid dinosaur of Tethys."

    Full article here.

    6a00d8341bf67c53ef01287650720f970c-500pi


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Two new dinosaurs related to the famous Iguanodon have been unearthed in Utah.
    The larger of the two animals, Iguanacolossus, would have been about 30 feet long and is described as a “somewhat ponderous beast with robust limbs.” Hippodraco, at a comparatively paltry 15 feet, was a much smaller animal, and the remains described in the paper may have even belonged to a juvenile. Although both new dinosaurs are known from only partial skeletons, the bones are distinctive enough in anatomy and in their geologic context to justify placing them in new species. (Paleontologists also found the fragmentary remains of other dinosaurs at each of the two sites, but not enough was preserved to positively identify what genera or species they might belong to.)
    Determining the true diversity of these iguanodonts and their relationships to one another will require more time and additional fossils, but at present it appears that the Early Cretaceous iguanodonts in western North America were quite different from their cousins elsewhere. Compared with relatives that lived at the same time in other places, both Hippodraco and Iguanacolossus appear to be relatively archaic species, meaning that they were more similar to earlier varieties of iguanodonts than the more specialized species such as Iguanodon. Andrew McDonald has already begun sorting all of this out, but for now it is clear that the Early Cretaceous West was home to a unique and varied collection of iguanodonts which we are only just beginning to understand.

    iguanacolossus.png
    Image by Lukas Panzarin

    Summary article here.
    Full paper here.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    We already suspected it but here's the proof; by studying the growth rings in the bones of polar dinosaurs paleontologists found that they were just the same as in dinos from tropical and temperate regions, suggesting these animals were fully active all year round:

    http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Polar_dinosaurs_not_different_from_others_999.html

    This is yet more evidence that dinosaurs were warm blooded and possibly, that polar dinosaurs had some kind of insulating covering (feathers and the like). I don´t know if you guys have a thread for this but, it is now believed that Leaellynasaura (of Walking with Dinosaurs fame... kinda) was not scaly as the show depicted it, but probably covered on some kind of feather or protofeather coat. The fact that its (extremely long) tail was flexible instead of rigid as in other dinosaurs suggests that it could wrap itself with its fluffy tail, like Arctic foxes and Snow Leopards do today, when the cold was too extreme or when it slept.

    leaellynasaura.png

    This also fits the fact that Leaellynasaura has huge eyes and optic lobe, suggesting enhanced night vision- useful during the darkest half of the year in polar regions.


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  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,537 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    in the absence of warm blooded preditors it's not that much of a disadvantage in being lethargic

    in the kingdom of the blind the oneyed is king etc.

    technically speaking bears don't hibernate either

    any chance they stayed in caves in groups like sakes do ?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    in the absence of warm blooded preditors it's not that much of a disadvantage in being lethargic

    in the kingdom of the blind the oneyed is king etc.

    technically speaking bears don't hibernate either

    any chance they stayed in caves in groups like sakes do ?

    If they were warm blooded, and they almost certainly were, I don´t see the use of doing that- but you never know. We know some small ornithopods did live in burrows...


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    It is one of the smallest herbivorous dinosaurs known from China; just 1 meter tall and about 1.5 meters long. It lived around 100 million years ago and was an ornithopod (a hypsilophodontid, I would guess?)

    http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/120116/yueosaurus-tiantaiensis-new-dinosaur-discovered-china
    1-s2.0-S0195667111001790-gr5.sml


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Would not mind having one as a pet...


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    When I read the title I thought of the small plants getting eaten. :D

    Started to put fencing around my geraniums just in case :D:D:D


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    As any dino buff knows, there were at least two species of Saurolophus; one from North America and the other from Mongolia. Amazingly, fossilized skin has been found for both, and now a study finds that the scale pattern was actually quite different in both, otherwise similar species.

    http://superoceras.blogspot.com/2012/02/saurolophus-skin-suggests-speciation.html
    journal.pone.0031295-2.png


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033539

    It is not often that you hear/read something about Tenontosaurus that doesn´t have to do with Deinonychus.
    Poor dino, forever typecast as the brutal murder victim...

    tumblr_lpfiszboPe1qmokero1_500.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    Reminds me of a cartoon that we had in Uni. Mummy Lemming to Little Lemmings. "The one thing you should know about being a lemming, my dears, is EVERYTHING EATS LEMMINGS"


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    It is not often that you hear/read something about Tenontosaurus that doesn´t have to do with Deinonychus.
    Poor dino, forever typecast as the brutal murder victim...

    At least Acrocanthosaurus is getting in on the act these days to ad abit of variety...

    SuperStock_4141-23694.jpg
    flatwork5.jpg
    Acrocantosaurus++vs+Tenontosaurus2.jpg
    4.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    I like the name. I wonder what it means?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    It is named after the locality of Kundur, where it was found. :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    It is named after the locality of Kundur, where it was found. :pac:

    Bah. I take it back then. I much prefer when they use their imagination.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Bah. I take it back then. I much prefer when they use their imagination.

    Me too. At first I thought/hoped it would mean something like "condor-reptile" or something like that although it didn´t sound right for a duckbill... but whatever. It could have been much worst.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    Chunderosaurus sounds better if it vomited brought up it's cud a lot


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Very little known dino; this seems to be the first case of neonatal ornithopods found in Gondwana.

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X12002870?v=s5

    1-s2.0-S1342937X12002870-gr1.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    $31.50 for the full paper? Bit steep for me. :o


  • Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Ziphius


    Galvasean wrote: »
    $31.50 for the full paper? Bit steep for me. :o

    It's unfortunate how much science is locked behind a paywall :(


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,537 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Ziphius wrote: »
    It's unfortunate how much science is locked behind a paywall :(
    It's annoying how much publicly funded science is locked behind paywalls :mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    It's annoying how much publicly funded science is locked behind paywalls :mad:


    This ^^ :mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Ziphius


    It's annoying how much publicly funded science is locked behind paywalls :mad:

    Oh yes, that too, of course.

    Hopefully funding organisations will follow the Wellcome Trust and their open access policy.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Not paleontology, I know, but I bet you immediatly thought of Iguanodon?

    This Japanese frog uses a bony spike on its "thumb" to stab its rivals, usually leaving scars, and also to secure the female during mating (also leaving her scarred). As if that wasn´t enough, the article mentions another species (a tree frog) that also has thumb spikes but specifically targets the eyes and ear drums of its rivals often with fatal consequences.

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/10/19/more-wolverine-frogs-japanese-species-uses-bony-thumb-spikes-to-fight-and-hold-onto-mates/

    frog-thumb-spike.grid-6x2.jpg

    Maybe Iguanodon and similar dinosaurs such as Ouranosaurus and Lurdusaurus used their spikes in similar ways- meaning, not only as defensive weapons but to fight same species rivals and perhaps even targeting the most vulnerable spots of their opponents. Going for the eyes and stuff. Scary.

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2ORjKyEXpAUsHAxYRzST1Tx3A9_45owxnLNPcHd9umdjxag2hkA


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,537 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    let's not forget ye olde platypus

    it's so much that it's poison is very toxic but that the pain it causes is not eased by morphine because it behaves in a different way to things like snake venom.

    not sure if you could call platypus venom convergent because it is so different


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    let's not forget ye olde platypus

    it's so much that it's poison is very toxic but that the pain it causes is not eased by morphine because it behaves in a different way to things like snake venom.

    not sure if you could call platypus venom convergent because it is so different

    I think it has been suggested that Iguanodon's thumb spike had venom too, like the platypus', although I think there's no evidence of it found thus far. But wouldn´t it be cool? :D


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