Let Me Know Next Time

Apparently, for some reason, I decided to do today's normal topic of entry yesterday. I think it has honestly just been a very long weekend. I read a lot yesterday and apparently thought it was Sunday a day early. Therefore, let us talk about this image today where we should have yesterday:

The typical description of Aegyptosaurus is that of "a close relative of Argentinosaurus." This is not very descriptive except that there is a somewhat understood identity revealed in that statement that identifies Aegyptosaurus as a large sauropod. Argentinosaurus is, of course, a rather gigantic titanosaur and Aegyptosaurus is also considered to be a titanosaurid, though somewhat smaller than Argentinosaurus. No exact size estimate is reliably available to us these days, but as a titanosaur it Aegyptosaurus was most likely very large. This image of this rather large dinosaur allows us to infer that very few predators probably hunted these animals. The only likely dinosaur in northern Africa at the time of Aegytposaurus' reign was most likely the enormous predator Carcharodontosaurus. Hopefully that will help in giving a size estimate to the adult Aegyptosaurus.

Kids in Egypt

Typically when educational materials or sites with facts are shared about Egypt the topic has a lot more mummies and pyramids involved. The fact that today's educational links are about an Egyptian dinosaur make learning about Egypt no less worthy of being included in an education of ancient Egypt, it just makes Egyptian history that much older and more interesting. Despite having very little, almost none really, surviving fossils of Aegyptosaurus, the dinosaur is fairly well known still and has garnered attention from About and Enchanted Learning in short but sweet fact websites. It has also been discussed by a Raresource site that mentions a book that discusses all of the lost dinosaurs of Egypt (called The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt) that is available as an electronic book. This would be a good source for information not only about Aegyptosaurus but also Spinosaurus and others.

Back to the Mangroves

A long time ago I discussed some dinosaurs that lived in the mangrove swamps of northern Africa in the late Cretaceous. As with many of these northern African dinosaurs, this animal was collected and described in the early 20th Century by the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer. In 1932 the bones attributed to Aegyptosaurus baharijensis were brought back to Europe from its namesake country (Egypt) and Niger and the Sahara as well. The specific name refers to the well known Bahariya Oasis area of Egypt . Ernst Stromer collected these fossils at the same time that he collected a number of other dinosaurs including Spinosaurus. Aegyptosaurus was fated to be stored in the same museum collections as Spinosaurus and unfortunately had the same fate. The fossils of Aegyptosaurus, despite being lost during World War II, revealed before their loss a rather large sauropod related to Argentinosaurus. Many of the illustrations we have of Argentinosaurus are based on the illustrations of Stromer that have been extrapolated and fleshed out.

Skull of the Oviraptor

AMNH cast of Khaan mckennai skull

As has been noted all week, Khaan is very similar to other members of its family. That may seem like a common sense notion, but in the family of oviraptorids that is more the norm than an exception. The skulls of oviraptorids are all very similar, possibly the most similar aspect of all of their anatomy, and Khaan is no exception. This may explain, in part, the public knowledge of Khaan. in no way is Khaan popular because it is so regularly seen on television or even in books or other typical outlets for popular dinosaurs. There are exceptions to this rule of course, such as Martyniuk's A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and Long's Feathered Dinosaurs. The illustrated versions of the dinosaur in these two books is extravagantly different, but they both have their merits. Regardless, these are two of the only solid mentions of Khaan in popular literature. We saw earlier in the week that a few models have made their way into Spore but no other video games have, as yet, possessed a Khaan model. That fact is a little bit disheartening. Toys are also absent in the realm of popularity of Khaan. For a dinosaur that mainly turns up historical and science fiction websites when its name is searched, however, it is a rather interesting and exciting dinosaur to add to the parade of species. There may be a time when the species is consolidated, or more differences may be discovered that further solidify the validation of Khaan, but until that time this will just have to continue being a rather neat oviraptorid that is under appreciated by the public at large.

Same and Different

Khaan is a dinosaur that was initially mistaken, as many have been in the past, and was originally assigned to an occupied genus (Ingenia). In many ways Khaan is like every other oviraptorid dinosaur, and in enough ways, it is not. The remains are well enough preserved that the differences between Khaan and other oviraptorids were able to be seen by the describing authors and subsequent researchers as well. The manus is the main source of difference in Khaan as it lacks a character found in other members of the family. The difference is small, and probably cannot be easily seen in photographs of the holotype, but it does exist, and that is enough.

Those AMNH Folks

Khaan has been given the twice over many different times. The American Museum of Natural History's researchers have been over Khaan mckennai more often than any other group of researchers. This has led to a number of papers, two of which tell prominent stories about Khaan and its life. The original description comes to us not only from the AMNH but also from the team that recovered the remains based with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and AMNH's joint field expeditions. The first author on the paper was actually not affiliated specifically with either institution; James Clark is a professor and researcher at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The description is not the only visit, however, as I stated beforehand. The osteology of the rather well preserved holotype has been studied also. This study is of great importance to understanding the life and phylogeny of Khaan. A great deal of the paper actually discusses phylogeny, which is sometimes confusing and sometimes enlightening. Every reader's reaction to the arguments in that study are their own, so I will not push my opinion of it on anyone, read it for yourself and come to a decision!

Settle for Spore

Oviraptorids have been pretty prominent for a long while. They have a tendency, therefore, to show up in many different kinds of videos including documentaries and videos of some kind or another online. The only videos online, though, are amateur models of Khaan. The best one is probably this video of a Spore model.

Mixture of Links

© Berislav Krzic

There are really only two viable links that I thought were worth sharing today. They are links to sites that we share basically every week. The first is the NHM of London which has a short fact file and the image shown here associated with it. The second is the page hosted by About. Other pages could possibly be found out on the internet somewhere with some diligent searching. However, Khaan is a strangely enigmatic dinosaur. It appears to be popular enough to have more links dedicated to it somewhere, but the links that come up when searching for Khaan are typically either Star Trek or Mongolian history related. If there are any other very high quality sites that anyone wishes to share please feel free to do so below.

Big Fluffball

Seeking proper attribution

Dinosaurs with feathers, like Khaan, are often portrayed as extra fluffy. In and of itself that is not a problem and this illustration of Khaan is actually not anywhere near as fluffy as it could be. The coloration of this version is quite simple but very interesting and it even seems appropriate for the dino-bird depiction of the animal. The chicks are, as they often are in illustrations of near bird dinosaurs, very reminiscent of extant ducks. Were these dinosaurs roaming in this form today, I would definitely work at whatever zoo or sanctuary reared those fluffy looking chicks.

Not James Kirk's Favorite Dinosaur

A few weeks ago I referenced a dinosaur momentarily that I thought would have been a wonderful name as a Star Trek reference. It turned out, of course, that the name comes not from Star Trek but from the legacy of the Mongolian Khanate. Khaan mckennai Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001 is named after the Mongolian word for ruler and the prolific American paleontologist Malcolm McKenna. More importantly, Khaan is a newer oviraptorid named within the last 20 years during a time when much was coming to light about the family. For instance, feathering schemes for an oviraptorid were never much of a debated feature for Khaan; there was some of course, but not anywhere near as much as there would have been a decade prior. Khaan is known from a holotype pair of skeletons that are both nearly complete. These skeletons are intertwined and have been nicknamed Romeo and Juliet in that way that dinosaurs often are named.

Photograph by Steve Starer of the holotype

Still Working on Popularity

©Amy Martiny

Liaoceratops is the kind of dinosaur that we expect a lot of toys, children's books, and other popular culture types of paraphernalia to exist for. There is a cast of the skull for sale out there on the internet, but the picture of it on all the sites I found it for sale on are fairly awful. The image shown here and the cast belong to the Witmer lab at Ohio University. The image was taken by Amy Martiny, a former student in that lab.The lack of quality popular culture references is terrible, but the cast appears to be very nice.

Potential Misnomer

Liaoceratops' name means "Liao Horned Face" but the skulls that we have seen clearly lack any and all semblance of horns. There are ridges on the parietal and squamosal bones that, in this "skin stretched tautly" illustration, are very pronounced. They probably would not be as pronounced in a more modern version of the illustration, but this version is very nice as well. As a basal neoceratopsian the body size of Liaoceratops was gracile enough that it was certainly capable of bipedality and may have even been facultatively quadrupedal rather than an obligate biped. In either modality, Liaoceratops was a very mobile and gracile member of the ceratopsians, a phrase not often used with that family of lumbering giants.

Paper Trail!

Liaoceratops has a great deal of research devoted to it. A lot of the papers published on the animal are descriptions of the dinosaur's remains but these range from the initial description of mixed age specimens to specific later discoveries of what appear to be juvenile specimens. The original description paper discussing mixed age specimens is the paper from which the illustration of the younger skull that was shown yesterday was taken from. The dinosaur has been discussed in many different arenas, especially when it is used as a reference to positioning of other taxa and relationships between neoceratopsian and psittacosaurian taxa. One referencing paper is about tooth replacement in neoceratopsians and is rather interesting read. I recommend reading it if you like teeth, but you may have to save it and open it through Adobe rather than allowing the pdf to open itself; it is strangely finicky.

Video Loss

There are absolutely no videos of Liaoceratops. As the oldest neoceratopsian, not the oldest ceratopsian as one website claimed. National Geographic's original coverage story still exists, which is nice, but it is still not a video. There are not even 3D models or video game references, which is very rare in this day and age. Instead of video, therefore, that new story and this image of one of the skulls is the image for the day. The image, which will be seen again tomorrow when we discuss the paper that it came from, is drawings and photographs of a younger animal's skull. How young we will find out tomorrow.

©Xu et al 2002

A Pair of Sites

There are two good sites for facts Liaoceratops related information. The sites are our typical fare this time around, NHM London and About. There really, unfortunately, is not much else to see on this trip today. Let's allow the sites to do what they do and get on with the day.

Yell-o-saurus

Copyright Michael Skrepnick 2002

Liaoceratops probably had many reasons to be upset like it appears in this image. It was certainly not the smallest of the "pre" Triceratops Ceratopsians (Liaoceratops is technically considered one of the basal most neoceratopsians which includes Triceratops), but it was still living in an area of the world populated by early maniraptorans and tyrannosaurids; Tarbosaurus and Velociraptor were still approximately 60 million years in China's future at the time of Liaoceratops. The fact that Liaoceratops was not as heavy or as heavily armored as its later descendants is reflective of the predators that it lived with. Its predators were probably just as dangerous to it as Tyrannosaurus was to Triceratops or Tarbosaurus was to Saurolophus (unfortunately a hadrosaur and therefore a different type of comparison). However, seeing that it was lighter and certainly lightly armored compared to later Ceratopsians, we can infer that the predators of the time, without knowing what they were (Raptorex fits into this time frame), were probably smaller than later Cretaceous predators.

More Horned Faces

©Nobu Tamura

130 million years ago in what is now China's Liaoning province a basal Ceratopsian dinosaur was doing what Ceratopsians did: eat, sleep, and other things that living creatures do. In 2002 a Chinese (Chinese Academy of Sciences based) and American (University of Chicago based) team uncovered and described a dinosaur they came to name Liaoceratops yanzigouensis (Horned face of Liaoning from Yanzigou). This small Ceratopsian is considered one of the basal most members of the line leading directly to larger horned dinosaurs like Triceratops and Styracosaurus. Some of the morphological traits that would be enhanced and highlighted in the larger descendants are obviously evident, to a degree, in Liaoceratops, as we would expect with a founding member of a lineage.

Popularity and the Bird Mimic

Being a bird mimic is apparently a reward enough in itself in the world of gaining popularity for dinosaurs. Avimimus appears in more than a handful of books, dozens of websites, and as many illustrations and coloring sheets. The skull has been replicated and sold many times over as well, though there are not many models sold as toys in the general market (a hotspot for popularity amongst children and some adult enthusiasts we know, of course). The dinosaur has even appeared in World of Warcraft (as have many other dinosaurs) as a named artifact of clothing or gear (a belt in this case).

Feathered Beaks and Heads

Avimimus is, with sufficient confidence, known to be a feathered Caenagnathid theropod. Caenagnathids include theropods from the basal-most Avimimus to the most derived members Conchoraptor and Khaan (not a Star Trek reference despite my personal hopes) and also includes Oviraptor and Citipati. As we saw yesterday in Kurzanov's description paper, Avimimus is considered to be a more direct ancestor to modern birds than Archaeopteryx. This is obviously not the majority rule, but given the rather interesting bird mimicry discovered in the skeleton of Avimimus, the ideas of Kurzanov regarding the origin of birds in relation to Avimimus are rather intriguing and could be considered compelling. The image accompanying this entry is not as avian as the Conway illustration shown before, but it does solidly represent the avian traits of Avimimus.

The Eighties

In 1981 Sergei Kurzanov returned from Mongolia with the remains of Avimimus. The initial description was included in a series of short descriptions but, as it was rather unique amongst the remains, Avimimus gathered some individual attention and was partially singled out. Kurzanov visited the remains again in 1983 with an eye on the dinosaur's relationship with the origin of birds. The ecological aspect, in particular, was of interest to Kurzanov in the paper and makes for a rather interesting paper. A review of the dinosaur in the Chiappe and Witmer edited Mesozoic Birds also included Kurzanov (this time without having to be translated and hosted on Paleoglot). The best thing about the preview is that the entire chapter is available online.

Find the Bird Mimic

Supposedly, in one of Discovery Channel's last realistic documentaries, Avimimus is mentioned and discussed because of its relationship with the origin of birds. Unfortunately, since the last time I found that documentary, the quality copies of it have been rather quickly disappearing from circulation on the internet. One of the remaining copies is still online, in pieces, and it is a good show, but it does not directly discuss Avimimus for an extended amount of the show. Regardless, it is the only documentary that shows Avimimus or discusses it, to my knowledge, and therefore works for this week's watching.

Links Aplenty

Avimimus facts are everywhere on the internet. Part of the reason that it is so popular is that it is a fairly charismatic animal, has a name that means "bird mimic", and a readily recognizable body plan (much like that of its relatives). The fact files range from the somewhat simplified (Enchanted Learning) to the much more complex (Dinosaur Jungle). There are also intermediate websites full of fun facts (including About and KidsDinos). As has happened in the past, the best coloring page available is a line drawing by Josep Zacarias (do not forget to ask for his permission to post any coloring of his images!).

Shades of Yellow

©John Conway

A lot of paleoartists are known for their wonderfully energetic and colorful illustrations of dinosaurs in action. Avimimus could be, and has been many times, portrayed in a very vivid color scheme in an extremely active manner. One of my favorite paleoartists, John Conway, went the opposite way with his interpretation of this dinosaur. His version of Avimimus is much calmer and subdued compared to many of the other interpretations. The colors of the dinosaur, its chicks, and the scenery are all soft earthy tones. Feathering of the dinosaurs is minimal but effective. If this Avimimus possessed large display feathers in this color scheme it would look somewhat ridiculous. As things are though, the smaller, less ostentatious feathering on Conway's Avimimus is both effective and appropriate. To my knowledge neither long nor short feathers would be accurate right now as we do not have concrete evidence of the determinant growth length of Avimimus' feathers.

Bending the Rule

There are technically no rules in the order of entries around here, however, typically the animals discussed oscillate between carnivore and herbivore with an omnivore mixed in here and there. Standing between the heights of extant Turkeys and Emus, Avimimus portentosus was one of those potentially omnivorous species that is, this week, wiggling its way into the rotation. A theropod averaging approximately 1.5 meters (5 feet) long including its tail and just under 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall when not standing completely erect and stretched out. Discovered in Mongolia in 1981, Avimimus was thought to be an insectivore, as many oviraptorid dinosaurs usually are, but is now hypothesized to have been more omnivorous. Evidence indicates that this may have been a semi-gregarious dinosaur that dabbled at the edges of marshlands and collected in large flocks or herds throughout the year.

Conty

Walking In Toy Land

Saltasaurus has been immortalized many times over since its description in 1980 in many different ways that have gained it popularity in the general public. This includes the rather strange headed Carnegie model pictured here. Saltasaurus also has been featured in various dinosaur parks as both a static and animatronic model. Saltasaurus has also made an impact in video games, card games, and even in electronic encyclopedias and cartoons. This is definitely one of those weeks when links could fill up the entire page and one could visit websites on just Saltasaurus for the rest of the week. It has been modded into Spore and Zoo Tycoon as well. One of my favorite links is from the cartoon Dinosaur King, enjoy the episode.

Welcome to Salta

The amazing find of a titanosaurid sauropod with osteoderms growing along the length of its back would cause the assumption that its generic name would refer directly to those osteoderms. Instead, the specific epithet does refer to those osteoderms (loricatus means armored) while the generic name referred to the town (Salta) in the Lerma Valley of Argentina nearest to the dig site that turned up those osteoderms and the other high quality fossils included in the original description. A lesser known importance of Saltasaurus is its impact on the ever changing perceptions of the world of paleontology. Saltasaurus was name and described during a time in which it was becoming readily clear that sauropods still maintained a dominance in the southern half of the world as the largest group of herbivores. In other parts of the world sauropods had clearly been replaced by better adapted herbivores and as these were the most collected areas of the world it was assumed by many, if not all paleontologists at one point, that sauropods had declined in the non-collected areas as well. The discoveries of Saltasaurus and many other sauropods in the last 30 years in the southern half of the globe has, and still is, turned those assumptions completely upside down and repainted the Cretaceous world completely. Thankfully. It is a wonderful dinosaur and a wonderful world that it once lived in.

Armoured Sauropods

Probably the most important feature of Saltasaurus, as mentioned previously, was the presence of osteoderms along the neck, back, and tail of this enormous sauropod. This was a fact that was not lost on the discoverers of the fossil or Jose Bonaparte who wrote the original description of the dinosaur (excluding von Heune's description of similar material that did not possess the osteoderms later discovered). Those osteoderms have been the center of attention concerning Saltasaurus for many years and, not entirely to the detriment of the entire animal, many studies of them have been conducted. In fact, histological studies have been conducted relatively recently that shed even more light on the dinosaur, the growth of the osteoderms, and their development in an animal where they are not typically expected to be found.

Discovery Suite of Clips

Saltasaurus makes its most major documentary appearance in Discovery's Dinosaur Planet series. Discovery, in their normal fashion, has released clips of the show on their own website and, though it shows up from time to time without their permission, has not aired the entire show anywhere online. Regardless, the small clips that are present online, officially, are well received segments of the show and have not, to my knowledge, been too heavily debated. Either way, here they are for your perusal!

A Grain of Saltasaurus Before Bed

In the majority of the reading area it is not bed time. It is in part of it though and I recognize that my later in the day entries do not always allow people time to read and visit all of the sites I link to on Sundays before they go to bed. Because Saltasaurus has many links, I thought it would be a good idea to address the timeliness (or lack thereof) of those links today. Every kid-friendly website today has some facts about Saltasaurus and most of them have an image or two that is actually the right dinosaur (always something to be on the lookout for). My favorite images are those used by The Dino Directory (NHM London) and Bob Strauss on About. These are probably my favorite because of the old-fashioned art (London) and the nice Alain Beneteau piece that Bob Strauss highlighted. KidsDinos used a toy for their image, but regardless of that, their fact file is well put together, as always, and is rather concise. A rather short description accompanies Mariana Ruiz Villareal's illustration (shown here Saturday) on New Zealand based Science Kids website. The most extensive link of the day belongs to Dinosaur Jungle though, which has an acceptable image but a lot of facts along with it. There are a lot of ads to navigate around however. If there is time in your schedule today for art, I recommend asking the always nice Josep Zacarias if you can use his line drawing of Saltasaurus to color or Enchanted Learning's black and white drawing. Mr. Zacarias' work is, of course, more scientifically accurate, so it is worth checking out his version of the dinosaur.

Any Old Sauropod

©Mariana Ruiz Villarreal

Saltasaurus, like any true sauropod, was a quadrupedal giant. The ability of these enormous dinosaurs to rear themselves up onto their hindlimbs has been debated for years with views alternating and swaying with every new discovery. There is always a contingent that holds to obligate quadrupedality and a contingent that holds to facultative, but short, bursts of bipedality. Regardless of camps of thought, the vision of a sauropod like Saltasaurus rearing back on its hindlimbs and using its tail as a prop is commonplace in the annals of sauropod illustration. This illustration is classic for sauropods but also specifically detailed for Saltasaurus with the addition of the many rows of osteoderms along the neck, back, and tail. These osteoderms may not have been entirely useful to the enormous adults, but their protection, no matter how small, would have been of great use to juveniles and sub-adults.

I Could Have Sworn...

©Harrison Zhao

I really thought that I had covered this topic before, but a thorough search of the Dinosaur of the Week archives turns up only three mentions of Saltasaurus loricatus. Those three instances are all made in the same context and mention Saltasaurus as a prey item. Saltasaurus was a respectable size for a Late Cretaceous Gondwanan Titanosaurid, though, at 12 meters (39 feet), it is certainly not the largest of the Titanosaurs to have been recovered from South America. Diverging slightly from many other Titanosaurs, Saltasaurus had a very distinctive skull shape that was much more reminiscent of the North American Diplodocid dinosaurs of the Jurassic. The shape of the head was not the only similarity, Saltasaurus also possessed peg-like teeth that were blunt and present only in the rostral half of the mouth. Saltasaurus, when discovered in 1980, was also an extremely unique sauropod in that it possessed clearly defined osteoderms like those seen on crocodilians and, later, other sauropods.

Forgotten Dinosaur

©Alain Beneteau

Tarascosaurus has been one of those dinosaurs that has somewhat escaped the limelight of the dinosaur world. Its inclusion in Dinosaur Planet made it better and more widely known. The dinosaur never gained enough renown to make an impact on the toy or model market, the video game market, or the children's book niche. Tarascosaurus is simply not that well known to the outside world. It is very unfortunate for people that like Abelisaurids, insular dwarves, or Late Cretaceous apex predators like Tarascosaurus. Alain Beneteau clearly likes the dinosaur,as he sketches them often, including the wonderful illustration below and a painting that was shown earlier this week.

Feeling Femurs

Tarascosaurus femur

The femur of the holotype of Tarascosaurus is only about 22 centimeters (8.7 inches) long. That is approximately the size of the average hand from thumb to little finger when both are extended! Fortunately for the dinosaur that bone is only a partial specimen and does not, alone, reflect the height of Tarascosaurus. The estimated total length is not much more impressive, however, and tops out, supposedly, at 35 centimeters (14 inches). This length, though, amounts to a dinosaur that has been estimated at approximately 2.5 meters to 3 meters (8.2 to 9.8 feet) tall at the top of the pelvis. While not as tall as some other contemporary dinosaurs (e.g. Tyrannosaurus, Carnotaurus), Tarascosaurus was most likely the largest predator in its ecosystem, especially in the archipelagos of the Tethys Ocean that covered the majority of Europe during this time. As such, the dinosaur deserved its association with its namesake, an Ibero-Gallic dragon-like monster of lore known as both Tarasque and Tarasca.

In Any Language...

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about international science, aside from making the globe a happier place, is the fact that it usually exists in more than one language. Le Loeuff, the man responsible for describing Ampelosaurus, also described Tarascosaurus around the same time and his original paper is available in his native French as well as in English. The translation was given to the internet by Matt Carrano in 1997 in coordination with its uploading to the Paleoglot and Dinochecker websites in more recent times. Either way one enjoys it, the original paper is a good paper to read.

Two Options

Tarascosaurus can be seen in the Discovery Channel's documentary Dinosaur Planet. The dinosaur can therefore be seen in the documentary itself, not easily available online, or in this short highlight reel. I recommend seeing the full length episode, Pod's Travels, by searching the name of the episode. Ideally I could share the old link for the episode that I used many years ago, but the video has been taken down from YouTube. The only strange thing about the documentary is that Tarascosaurus in the episode is considered a dwarfed variant that may have inhabited islands of the Tethys Ocean.

Single Fact Page

The only page presenting facts about Tarascosaurus that can be shared today is, somewhat ironically, About. The questionable nature of the remains and the unsettled taxonomic position of Tarascosaurus means that there are not an awful lot of sites out there presenting facts related to the dinosaur for all ages. Associated materials are also vacant, making today a ludicrously short post, unfortunately.

When Abelisaurids Are Not

©Maurizio Morosan

The image yesterday was of Tarascosaurus as a Ceratosaurid theropod with very few to little Abelisaurid characteristics. The questioned nature of the relationship of the remains to Abelisaurids makes that sort of interpretation a valid envisioning of the anatomy of the dinosaur. The little material available leaves either an interpretation favoring or disagreeing with an Abelisaurid taxonomic assignment entirely up to the discretion of the artist as they illustrate Tarascosaurus. The illustration appearing here today favors an Abelisaurid body plan even more, with reduced forelimbs and a short boxy skull. The illustration presented is not presented to argue for or against taxonomic descriptions, but instead is intended only to show another interpretation of the dinosaur as it may have appeared if it belonged to the Abelisauridae.

Welcome to Tarasque

Tarascosaurus salluvicus is an uncertain Abelisaurid that inhabited the Late Cretaceous of Europe. It is solidly considered a Ceratosaurid theropod and is hypothesized to have hunted our previous dinosaur of the week, Ampelosaurus. The holotype femur and a maxilla are attributed to the animal at the present time and indicate that the theropod was approximately 30 feet (9 meters) long. The taxa has been considered valid, invalid, and uncertain by a number of different researchers since it was first described in 1991.

Amply Represented

Sauropods make quite a few appearances in video games for a variety of reasons, the number one reason probably being that a basic sauropod model is easy to manipulate into any number of slight variations in size, shape, or color. Ampelosaurus's version of those models appears in the Dinosaur King arcade game and the show and card game. Previously this week we saw that there are toy/models of Ampelosaurus. Liberia even made Ampelosaurus into a stamp!

Bones and A Brain

Approximately 500 individual bones have been assigned to Ampelosaurus atacis from the excavation sites in Southern France. The femora from that location number approximately 27 individual specimens. These bones are not assumed to have come from singular individuals specifically, meaning that any number from 14 to 27 individuals may be represented by these femora. More interesting, however, is a non-specifically assigned braincase described in 2013 by Knoll, et al. The braincase includes the majority of the skull surrounding the braincase (this includes paired frontals, parietals with extensions, basioccipital, occipital, basisphenoid, parabasisphenoid, prootic, and laterosphenoid). The CT scans and 3D renderings from the description and research are available free on PLOS. The images from the study are wonderfully detailed and freely available, however, they are too large to upload. In order to look at them and appreciate them the link is contained in the reference below.

Knoll F, Ridgely RC, Ortega F, Sanz JL, Witmer LM (2013) Neurocranial Osteology and Neuroanatomy of a Late Cretaceous Titanosaurian Sauropod from Spain (Ampelosaurus sp.). PLoS ONE 8(1): e54991. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054991

Originals and Osteologicals

Le Loeuff's original description of the titanosaurid Ampelosaurus is available online as a PDF from the translators over at the Polyglot Paleontologist. The translation is well done and the paper is short but informative. Lacking from this version though are the figure plates and details to which Le Loeuff refers in the paper. The images are available online in other places, including the Academia page of the article uploaded by Le Loeuff. The osteology of the dinosaur has also been discussed in the book Thunder-lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Some of the discussion for the topic is missing, but if the entire book is available it is worth borrowing and reading the entire section. If not, making do with the missing pages is not the end of the world either.

Video Reviews

Today I thought that we could try something a little different. There is not a documentary or news story or any other such video as we prefer to find on Mondays, however, there are a pair of reviews of the same Ampelosaurus model that we can view. One of the reviewers promises a discussion of the life history of the animal while the other only promises a review of the model. Either way a history of the animal must be discussed to review the authenticity of the model. I shall leave it to the videos to do the rest of the explaining for themselves though.

Tiny Titanosaurs for Tots

The sites that discuss Ampelosaurus are ample (pun intended). About sticks out first because it comes about alphabetically first and because it does, as usual, a very good job of summarizing the key facts and has been written up into an easy to read paragraph also. The NMH of London also has a site dedicated to the dinosaur, but puts out a lesser fount of information than the About page. This is okay to a point because they do make it up a little with a nice quality original illustration. It is not the same of course, as having quality information. KidsDinos and Prehistoric Wildlife both have respectable fact files and nice illustrations of the dinosaur. The search can continue beyond those sites, but the quality of the sites falls off quite a bit. There is no quality coloring page available today either, but these sites should keep young readers busy for a while and the illustrations can easily be used as references to draw their own dinosaurs today!

Protection and Little Titanosaurs

Compilation uncredited, dinosaur illustration is the same as yesterday (Dmitry Bogdanov).

Ampelosaurus, despite being a titanosaurid, appears to have been a somewhat smaller sauropod than is often thought of when we hear the name "titanosaur." This small-ish appearance of Ampelosaurus could be an artifact of the size of the femora discovered, but considering the number and diverse amount of remains that have been discovered, this most likely simply was a smaller titanosaur. This idea is probably best exemplified in illustrations (other than in the size comparison graphic above) by Alain Beneteau's depiction of a Taracosaurus attacking an Ampelosaurus. The head of the sauropod is, in all the illustrations that I have seen, are nearly identical. There is a known braincase and partial skull that accounts for the similarity in this aspect of all the illustrations. The back of Ampelosaurus is covered in osteoderms that have also been unearthed. As far as I know there is only a single photographed osteoderm available on the internet for our viewing.

Femora of France

©Dmitry Bogdanov

Discovered in France and Spain, Ampelosaurus atacis Le Loeuffe 1995 (Vine lizard of the Aude River) was a Cretaceous titanosaurid that presumably lived throughout Europe (though this has not been substantiated as yet). Many partial sets of remains of this dinosaur have been recovered, but the majority of those remains are actually represented by a single bone of the skeleton; the femur. The catalog of animals found near this dinosaur actually outweighs its gargantuan remains, but we can discuss that at a later time this week. Though known as a French dinosaur originally, some of the most interesting remains, including a braincase, have been discovered in Spain.

Human Ankle, Tarsier Leg

The morphology of Archicebus indicates that it is one of, if not exactly the last common ancestor of all primates from humans to monkeys. The largest similarities between primates and Archicebus are found in the metatarsals and the ankle, particularly the calcaneus. These bones are similar in shape and proportion to those seen in later primates. Archicebus, however, also possesses a skull, teeth, and limb bones that are much more common to a group of lower mammals (tarsiers).

Paper Time

The find of Archicebus has been important and monumental. The papers, many of the illustrations of which we have seen here this week, that have been published are few in number but are pretty informative and useful. The original paper and a completely independent paper that can probably be read in full with institutional access (I do not have that at home). Either way, the original paper is worth reading and it is the kind of paper that I never want to spoil by summarizing here. The discussion of haplorhine evolution is short, considering the overall paper length, but is definitely helpful in knowing where these tiny little primates rest on the tree of life.

News and Movies

To start, there is good news in the world. You can find that news here. It is very nice to be a part of the group and it is going to be quite a busy and fun time in the lab now.

In terms of video, there is a surprising lack of news stories associated with the relatively newly announced animal. The video shown here is a small snippet of that news. A slightly better news story can still be found on the NTD (New Tang Dynasty) television service website (the site states they are based in New York and broadcasts directly to mainland China and worldwide). This news story at least shows a portion of an interview with Ni Xijun that I saw the other day. Unfortunately, that interview was not in English at all. The NTD story translates it for us though thankfully.

Short Listed

Today there is not much out there. The newest finds usually have the fewest links and Archicebus is not that much different from any other fossil animal. There is a short round up on the About (http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/mesozoicmammals/p/Archicebus.htm) pages, which have always been pretty extensive in their coverage of the animal kingdom. Unfortunately, today is one of those rare days where we do not have a lot of specialized articles for people to let their kids loose on the internet to read. In that vein, however, it may be worth the time to go about searching safely and discuss what makes websites acceptable sources of information. There's a cheat sheet for that in case it is a topic that has never been discussed in your house (http://bit.ly/1CiN8tr).

Creepy Smiles

© Xijun Ni

The creepy smile of Archicebus achilles in this restoration is a little odd, though if I grabbed an insect that size for dinner as a rather small primate I would be just as happy as Archicebus appears to be. The rather large toes of the hindlimb in the reconstruction are true to those of the fossil remains as well. The nearly opposable thumbs on the forelimb are obviously useful for grasping insects like this rather large piece of dinner. The only thing that has not been alluded to with the fossil used as a model for the illustration is the potential ability of the tail to be used in a prehensile manner. The illustration does appear rather tarsier-like, which is a good thing as the animal is hypothesized to have been a member of the tree living between tarsier and monkey families.

That Prehensile Tail

© Xijun Ni

The first primates are probably what the populace thinks of when one says something like "prominent early mammals". Therefore, as the last of the strictly mammal weeks here, I present to allthe earliest recognized primate, Archicebus achilles Ni et al 2013. This little tree-scrambling primate is considered the first "haplorhine" or dry-nosed primate, a group that monkeys, apes, and humans all belong to as well. Its discovery in Asia supports hypotheses that primates first began to evolve in Asia and later migrated toward and eventually into Africa, where it is known that humans later evolved and originally migrated from. The name of the animal originated from the Greek and Latin combination meaning "Beginning monkey" with a reference to Achilles, supposedly due to a significantly novel calcaneus discovered in the fossil. The animal is comparable in weight to the smallest extant primates (Mouse Lemurs) but is thought to have been active during the day rather than nocturnally, like most small mammals were, and still largely are, when this little creature first began to confidently stride around on the planet.

Cartoon Popularity

Cimolestes and other small mammals do not make it into the toy market very often, which is quite okay. They often do not make much of a mark in the video game market either. Cimolestes does, however, actually hit a good chunk of the popular arena marketed toward kids thanks to Dinosaur Train that includes both video games, even if it is still just a small portion of the games online that are devoted directly to the Dinosaur Train genre. The same goes for toys; Cimolestes only really appears where Dinosaur Train characters are concerned. These are both hard to find online either way though. It actually seems that the only way that Cimolestes has been introduced to the public over the years is through technical literature (popularized books are absent) and the Dinosaur Train series.

What About Your Tail?

I noticed that there was a pretty fantastic piece of art out there but it has no illustrator credit and no dollar amount attached to it. Therefore, I present it to you today as a link to the bureau that apparently manages its release. I do not think that breaks any kind of copyright rules, so it should be okay. The image does not really address what I wanted to address today, but it is pretty fantastic looking. The thing I really wanted to look at today is the tail of Cimolestes. Most small rodents (e.g. anything smaller than Capybara and Beaver) we think of either have wiry little tails and use them as balancing tools or big bushy tails that can be used as balancing tools or to help provide warmth. Cimolestes is usually depicted with the wiry looking tail that we see in mice, rats, and shrews. It stands to reason, and considering the environment at the time, that there was not much need for Cimolestes to have a bushy tail for warming itself if this wiry tail counterbalance is correct. Balancing as it scrambled up and down the tree was probably the limit of what Cimolestes needed its tail for anyway considering that it used all four limbs to scramble around the tree. Any small help in balancing while running was a benefit for an animal scrambling away from dinosaur that could swallow it whole if it tripped or otherwise lost its balance when it was running away. Long tails in extant mammals sometimes serve the exact same purpose. Think about how well adapted Cimolestes was the next time you see a rat, mouse, or even a cat running along a fence top!

Not Necessarily Correct

©Carl Buell

The image presented here is from a news story about a small mammal that mentions Cimolestes and discusses their habitat. The story does not mention whether or not this image of Cimolestes or the other small mammal that is being discussed, so we can use this image today to go with the other papers and articles that I found about Cimolestes that are pretty interesting. The first article that was really good today actually discussed Cimolestes in a round about way as it actually centered on the evolution of placental mammals rather than the mammal itself. Woodward's 1910 description of a mandible found in Montana is also a good addition to the reading list for today. It notes how small details can be used to attribute something as small as a mandible to a known species. The final paper worth reading for the day is about two new potential specimens from the Gobi Desert. The specimens do not belong to the genus Cimolestes, but that animal is described and discussed in comparisons to the two genera that are being described in the paper. This kind of cross identification and description are important to be aware of and to be able to understand when reading future papers (consider it a future preparation tool for you younger scientists)

Hopping and Jumping

Aside from the episode of Dinosaur Train with Cimolestes there are not an awful lot (read: zero/none) of animated or puppeted references to Cimolestes in video, cartoon, or documentary of any kind. There is a nifty little animation that uses the scientific interpretations of the purported movements of the animal. It is a tiny little series of animations of Cimolestes hopping about, which is pretty cool looking honestly. The model is a little more mouse like than I think it should, in my most humble opinion of never having studied this animal in depth at all.

Two Sites Today

There are only two sites needed today. One is About, because it has a nice list of facts and a short paragraph which means it caters to a universal group of readers. The other is the PBS page for Dinosaur Train. The reason this stands alone with the fact page as an assist is because we get a fair number of facts from Dr. Scott Sampson and some inferred behavior discussion. Watching the episode with Cimolestes is also helpful, but there is not a link here for that today; check the PBS site and Netflix for the episode.

Perception of A Tree Rat

©Steve White

Cimolestes was a tree climbing rat sized mammal and it has been drawn as such many times. It has also been drawn to look something like a shrew and even an opossum. Regardless, it is a small mammal with a rodent-like body plan. Adept at clambering up trees and chasing down insects, Cimolestes was an iconic mammal of the Mesozoic. The iconic image of a very small mammal racing around underfoot of dinosaurs is perfectly filled by Cimolestes, however it is usually drawn in the trees, like this image. Its agile little body was slender, but the fluffy images that make it look more like an opossum (not this one) could be said to just be the result of its fur being puffed up. This less furry version looks a little sly, but may be a little more accurate.

Thievery of Bugs

Basal non-placental eutherians are a weird off-shoot of the extant group of eutherians, which are typically known to be placental mammals. One of the best known of those mammals was the Cretaceous scamperer Cimolestes. A North American fossil mammal of the trees the size of a rat, Cimolestes is thought to have chased insects around the arboreal habitats it called home and, probably often, temporary forays into the undergrowth below. Either way, Cimolestes may have been in a transitional place in the fossil history of mammals between marsupials and placental mammals. Additionally, look at how fuzzy and mammaly this animal has finally gotten to be. About time that mammals have started to look like mammals in this jumpy history we have been following lately!

Popularly Not Named

The name of Thrinaxodon is not used in the documentary for which it was used as a model. It appears all over the place though under its own name. Thrinaxodon is included in many other media, including illustrations and toys. The animal appears in popular card games and in the set of collector's cards shown below.

In 1982 South Africa put Thrinaxodon on a stamp also. In a more realistic vein, UT Austin's Digimorph collection is supplemented with a Thrinaxodon skull. My favorite popular culture mention of Thrinaxodon, however, comes from Wizards of the Coast's long standing collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.

Needing Citations

This image desperately needs a citation. Aside from needing a proper credit, it is a great image and very succinctly sums up a lot of the known anatomy of Thrinaxodon. The author/illustrator even included the secondary palate, though it is not visible, which is arguably the most important feature of the entire skeleton in terms of being nearly mammalian. There are other characteristics that show its nearness to the animals that would eventually become fully accredited, card carrying mammals such as the paired occipital condyles, modified jaws with teeth geared toward chewing and the loss of the pineal foramen. There has been speculation that the thorax and abdomen of this animal were separated by a primitive but effective mammalian diaphragm also, which is nearly as significant as the prediction that these animals or their nearest descendants may have been producing milk from mammary glands, a very mammalian trait.

They Wrote A Book

Seriously, they wrote a book on Thrinaxodon. The book is actually only on the cranial anatomy of the small near-mammal, which is slightly more impressive, if that was possible. The book is available as a plain html site from UCMP. That site, in turn, links an even larger work from the University of Texas that was written by Rowe, Carlson, and Bottorff in 1993. I feel like that level of information may be enough for most readers for a day, but there are also published studies on growth patterns and tooth growth and replacement. The writings explain themselves today and are on three of the most interesting topics around Thrinaxodon, which means they require very little further discussion. Enjoy your reading today ladies and gentlemen, there is quite a lot available to you!

Turning to Other Sources

As we have done many times, we have to go to a similar but different species to see anything like what the animal we are discussing in a documentary. Thankfully, the small near-reptile category of lifestyle was well represented despite being an animal other than Thrinaxodon. Labeled simply as "cynodont" in the species list of Walking With Dinosaurs Episode 1, the inspiration for the near-mammal was actually Thrinaxodon though it was not called that in the show. Knowing that, perhaps it is a little bit of misinformation to say that there is not a documentary that has Thrinaxodon in it. The animal is not entirely factual to Thrinaxodon alone however, and incorporates other near-mammals as well. Either way, watching it is beneficial.

Hear and See the Near-Mammal

The fact pages abound for Thrinaxodon. Part of the popularity is in its inherent "cute factor" and the other part lies in its nearness to mammals. Whatever makes it popular, it allows us more of a platform to educate that critical next generation in yet another fossil animal! As noted, there are many sites to look at, including About and the Walking With Wikis which both present the information in a manner that is more accessible for all ages and reading levels. The site Prehistoric Wildlife presents the information as an essay, making it a little less attainable to lower level readers. A video produced by Menteon Learning also lays out this information for us, though does not go into too much depth. This is actually not a bad thing though, as it allows the video to appear concise and accurate in its information, though more information is available than is presented. I am both happy and sad to say that I have another Josep Zacarias link that could certainly be used as a coloring book image as well today. Happy for obvious reasons, but sad because I also found it online without proper attribution, and Mr. Zacarias is a hardworking artist and deserves credit for his work!

Streamlined Digger

Thrinaxodon was built for digging and hiding. The small near-mammal was thin and cylindrical (as far as any tetrapod can be cylindrical anyway) and had a head that was elongated rostrocaudally. This gave it a long skinny body overall and made it look somewhat weasel-like. The major exception to this was the large, but slender, canine-like face with its large canine teeth that appear almost like tusks. The large teeth were not helpful for digging in any specific way, however, the limbs were most built for burrowing. They were short and powerful for digging and burrowing out their homes, but still elongated enough to be suitable for propelling it through the underbrush of small ferns and cycads that populated its world. Given its ability to scurry, probable nocturnal nature, and large teeth, Thrinaxodon was at least omnivorous and most likely fed on insects, lizards, and possibly other near-mammals/mammals and dinosaur nestlings or eggs. Burrowing was an effective way for an animal like this to hide during the day while it ran around at night getting into those dinosaur nests, other near-mammal burrows, and catching nocturnal insets. Efficient as it was then, burrowing is still extremely efficient and useful for small mammals, such as mice and mink, and larger mammals like badgers and otters (River Otters get rather large). It is no wonder that animals like Thrinaxodon would have used burrows for protection. Imagine this small animal shimmying through the hardened soil tunnels!

Breathing and Chewing

Few people stop and marvel at the wonder of being able to chew and breathe at the same time. The ability to breathe while holding food or water in the mouth has evolved a few times in the history of life and each time it has been a remarkable innovation in the line of animals in which it evolved. One of the earliest transitional near-mammals that has been found with the ability to breathe and chew was the Cynodontid Thrinaxodon. Thrinaxodon possessed a primitive secondary palate making this possible. A single species is recognized in the genus: Thrinaxodon liorhinus. This small near-mammal also possessed two small tusk-like teeth and is thought to have lived in riverbank burrows. At under 0.61 meters (2 feet) in length, this small animal would run and hide, use its long whiskers, and come out after dark under the feet of the earliest dinosaurs. These little animals were furry and weasel-like, but they were definitely wonderfully interesting little animals.

©Nobu Tamura

Mighty Moschops

Moschops is a well known unknown beast. That is very confusing, I know. When I have to say that about an animal, what I mean is that no one knows the name of the animal but they have seen the image, somewhere, it happens quite often with prehistoric animals. Moschops has appeared in many popular culture venues, as we have seen. It even featured as a main character in a children's program; that program was a little inaccurate of course. The line drawings of Trainor were even less accurate, overall, though he attempted to keep some of the science accurate. Some old toys still exist, though not many new molds of Moschops have been utilized lately. One of those few new molds has made its way onto YouTube, as toys often do, as a review. Big Time Attic made day #84 in their Dino-A-Day list an entry about Moschops. Their illustration is well done, but kept cartoony, like the Cannons typically tend to do with their artwork (I personally enjoy the child-like aspect of their art).

Calf Face of the Cape

There are four recognized species, though two are considered recognized but doubtful, of Moschops. The heavily ossified skull of Moschops is a defining feature of the animal that may, some speculate, may have been thickly built from birth onward. The speculation states that the fat but short tail adequately counter-balanced the heavy skull of Moschops and that it would have existed with the animal from birth if the head started out heavily ossified. Contrary-wise, if the skull became ossified over time as the animal aged, the counter-balancing tail could have started out miniscule and grown in coordination with the large skull. The skull, in true heavy helmeted-head fashion in the natural world, is very akinetic and appears to lack many visible sutures over much of its surface. The cemented nature of a skull that lacks sutures and kinesis allows for us to infer many behaviors, or at least make some interesting educated guesses, from looking at similar extant taxa with highly "helmeted" akinetic heads (e.g. Bighorn Sheep, American Bison). Due to this, there have been behaviors such as head-butting and display motions inferred in Moschops. The individual pits and bumps on the skull probably aided in the display function of the thick helmeted head of Moschops more than they would have in the physical combat part of intra- or interspecies combat.

Discussing Moschops

In 1936 Frank Byrne of Kansas State University named and described Moschoides which turned out to be a junior synonym of Moschops. It is funny in that Byrne specifically mentions in the first paragraph the large similarity between his new specimen and Moschops. Shortly thereafter, in 1940, Byrne published another article contemplating the evolution of mammal-like reptiles from the Karoo. In that article he again mentioned the similarities between Moschoides and Moschops without tying the two genera together. His discussion of the evolution of the animals is interesting though, despite this discrepancy. On a totally unrelated note, the fighting abilities, which I pondered for a moment or two on either Friday or Saturday, was actually studied and published in 1975 in the first volume of Paleobiology. Herbert Barghusen in Chicago is responsible for reviewing the fighting adaptations of all dinocephalians.

Jim Trainor, Not A Documentarian

Jim Trainor's short film The Moschops is the only short film in his fake "Highlights of the Permian Era" series. The science that exists in it is not the worst science out there, believe it or not, but it is certainly not entirely accurate by any means. The line drawings are typical Jim Trainor (to many that means they are awful). Usually on Mondays I try to only show quality documentaries and resort to not great documentaries where needed. This short film falls into the mostly entertainment category, so attempt to restrain the angry "That's not a documentary or exceptionally educational" comments if you can. The second part of the film, not linked here, gets a little more wayward (i.e. less G rated) with its treatment of the subject matter, hence my reluctance to share the link for that. The problem with a lot of these early mammal-like relatives of modern mammals is that there is not a lot of quality documentary clippings out there. The Walking With Series turns out to be, again, one of the more reliable nearly accurate shows, but it does not exactly discuss the animals we are interested in here today. The non-related Scutosaurus from the series Walking With Monsters probably best shows the posture and a similar gait while Edaphosaurus is probably most similar in diet. Unfortunately, of course, neither is Moschops.