At the Dawn of Dinosaur Science
I am induced to lay before the Geological Society the annexed representations of parts of the skeleton of an enormous fossil animal, found at Stonesfield near Woodstock, about twelve miles to the N. W. of Oxford ; in the hope that, imperfect as are the present materials, their communication to the public may induce those who possess other parts of the same reptile, to transmit to the Society such further information as may lead to a more complete elucidation of its osteology.
The good Reverend William Buckland published these words in 1824, introducing an article entitled, “Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield.”* Eighteen years later, when Sir Richard Owen became the first person to utter the word “dinosaur,” Buckland’s Megalosaurus was a charter member of the group. Buckland’s 1824 notice is recognized as the first scientific description of a dinosaur.** A PDF of this article was recently made available for download (along with a sampling of other notable 19th century papers) from the Geological Society of London.
Sample papers from the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 1811-1856.
* This notice illustrated a scant 7 pages of text with 5 beautiful lithographic plates of the fossils, reproduced at 25%, 50%, and full scale. I am inclined to believe that this very nearly approaches an ideal ratio of text to figures in a fossil description.
**Although historians are aware of at least one notable early attempt to describe probable Megalosaurus remains.
—Matt Celeskey.
File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.
Comments on record: (0)
Austroraptor cabazai
- New Dinosaur: Austroraptor cabazai
- Name Means: Cabaza’s South American Thief (Héctor Cabaza founded the Museo Municipal de Lamarque)
- Relations: Dromaeosaurid Theropod
- Holotype: MML-195, partial skeleton including pieces of the skull, vertebral column, forelimb and leg
- Location: Rio Negro Province, Argentina
- Age: Late Cretaceous, ~70,000,000 years old
- Length: ~5 meters (16 feet)
- Weight: ~368 kilograms (810 lbs)
- Reference: Novas, F. E., Pol, D., Canale, J. I., Profiri, J. D., Calvo, Jorge O., 2008. A bizarre Cretaceous theropod dinosaur from Patagonia and the evolution of Gondwanan dromaeosaurids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Published early online 17.12.2008. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1554.
- Elsewhere on the web:
—Matt Celeskey.
File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.
Comments on record: (3)
Skorpiovenator bustingorryi
- Quick sketch of Skorpiovenator bustingorryi
- New Theropod: Skorpiovenator bustingorryi
- Name Means: Bustingorry’s Scorpion Hunter (Manuel Bustingorry owned the land where the fossil was found, and the describers report an “abundance of living scorpions moving around the excavation.”)
- Relations: Abelisaurid theropod
- Holotype: MMCH-PV 48, an almost complete skeleton
- Location: Neuquén Province, Argentina
- Age: Late Cretaceous (~93,000,000 years old)
- Info: Skorpiovenator belongs to the Abelisauridae, a distinctive family of large carnivorous dinosaurs that prowled the Gondwanan supercontinent during the latter half of the Cretaceous period, from about 95 to 65 milion years ago. During this time, Gondwana was beginning to break up into several more familiar landmasses—South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, Antarctica—and palontologists have suggested that the relationships and distribution of abelisaurids might help determine the order in which Gondwana split apart.
- In Canale et al.’s phylogeny, Skorpiovenator is most closely related to other South American abelisaurids, including Ekrixinatosaurus, Ilokelesia, Carnotaurus, and Aucasaurus. They share a suite of features that suggest that they were turning their skulls into shock-absorbers: hyperossified ornamentation atop their heads, struts of bone projecting into or sealing off parts of the orbit, and shortened muzzles. This last feature inspired a name for this abelisaur subgroup—the Brachyrostra, or “short snouts.”
- If this interpretation is correct—that South America had its own endemic radiation of short-snouted abelisaurs for the last 30 million years of the Cretaceous, this might suggest that South America was isolated from other Gondwanan landmasses with non-brachyrostran abelisaurs (places like Africa and Madagascar). However, other abelisaur phylogenies present different conclusions, and, as Canale and his coauthors point out, there are certainly other groups of Cretaceous Gondwanan animals that have their own stories to tell.
- Reference: Canale, J. I., Scanferla, C. A., Agnolin, F. L., and Novas, F. E., 2008. New carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of NW Patagonia and the evolution of abelisaurid theropods. Naturwissenschaften published online 05 December 2008. doi: 10.1007/s00114-008-0487-4
- Elsewhere on the Web:
—Matt Celeskey.
File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.
Comments on record: (8)
Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai
- New Dinosaur: Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai
- Name Means: Lakusta’s Thick-nosed reptile.
(Al Lakusta discovered the Pipestone Creek Bonebed where the fossils of this dinosaur were found.)
- Relations: Ceratopsian
- Location: Alberta, Canada
- Age: Late Cretaceous, ~73,000,000 years ago
- Length: 6 meters, ~20 feet
- Weight: 1800 kilograms, ~2 tons
- Info: Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai is known from fossils first discovered more than 30 years ago in a densely packed bonebed in Alberta, Canada. Like the previously known species of Pachyrhinosaurus, P. canadensis, this new species had a thickened mass of bone (or boss) atop its nose as an adult. Unlike P. canadensis, the bosses of P. lakustai are present only in adults—juveniles of the new species were found to have horns like those of other ceratopsians. P. lakustai also differs from P. canadensis in smaller overall size and details of the ornamental spikes and bumps on its frill, according to the summary page of the newly released monograph describing this species.
- Reference: Currie, P. J., Langston, Jr., W., Tanke, D. H., 2008. A New Horned Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Bone Bed in Alberta. NRC Press. 152pp. ISBN-13 9780660198194.
- Web coverage:
- Update (10/3/08): Lawrence Witmer and Ryan Ridgely have made their work on the brain cavity and inner ear of Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai available online. From their “common language summary”:
Indeed, the most remarkable aspect of the brain structure of Pachyrhinosaurus is how small and primitive it must have been…Despite the cranial ornaments suggestive of perhaps elaborate behavioral displays and other evidence suggesting herding behavior or even migration, the behaviors of Pachyrhinosaurus were probably relatively simple, stereotyped, and instinctual.
—Matt Celeskey.
File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.
Comments on record: (0)
