This is Ezekiel O'Callahan with Raptor chatter today. We're going to be going over January '18 paleontology
this year paleontology started off very well with the study on Nothosaurus from the Netherlands.
A sister group to what would become the plesiosaurs,
This study helped to show the beginnings of what would become one of the most dominant groups throughout the Mesozoic oceans
the analysis of the skull of the specimen
Showed that it had a lack of strongly developed senses like smell or hearing but it did have well-developed eyes
And a well-developed pineal sensor the third eye seen in some reptiles today
Because of this it makes it much more likely that the Nothosaurus and their relatives took to the water in the early triassic
Being ambush predators in the shallow seas at the time.
The first bird tracks coming from Cretaceous Tibet were also described in January
The ichnospecies which is a species known from trace fossils such as footprints or burrows resembled a species already known since
1969 Koreanaornis. However, this is the first vertebrate fossil to come out of the Cretaceous rocks of tibet
And so it could be the first of many finds that are new to science
Birds use colors for signaling and recently
We've been able to find the colors of some extinct dinosaurs and birds
for example
Inkayacu was an ancient penguin that was much more brown and grey than we'd expect from the normal tuxedoed look of modern-day penguins
Now we may be able to tell how the dinosaurs and birds may have been able to see each other
For the first time a Chinese fossil has shown soft tissue preservation from the eyes
Crystallized oil droplets have been found inside the cones of the fossilized eye
in modern Birds these oil droplets are used to help the bird see and perceive color in different ways
Depending on the size of the oil droplet.
Because of the wide variation in oil droplet sizes we have in the fossilized eye
It makes sense that these ancient birds and extinct birds would be able to see in color and in full color
Just like their modern-day counterparts
Lepidoptera may sound like a tropical disease, but it's actually the family of insects which contains butterflies and moths
nectar eaters today
It's believed that these species had evolved during the propagation and spread of the first flowering plants during the Cretaceous.
However, microfossils of wing scales found in the early Jurassic of Germany show that the Lepidopterans must have evolved in the late triassic
Adding at least 70 million years to the time that they evolved.
Now while there weren't flowering plants there
It is still believed that these species would have fed on nectar
however this nectar would have been secreted as drops by the seed growing plants of the time period and
Also would have acted as a water source during the very dry Triassic.
A study on tetrapods during the Permian Triassic extinction
showed that their distributions shifted 10 to 15 degrees towards the poles
This was following massive global warming with the oceans at the equator reaching over 40 degrees Celsius.
Because of the global warming life was
restricted to the cooler latitudes of the planet
Increasing competition and decreasing habitats.
Once the cooling started and the equatorial latitudes opened back up
It was fair game for any creature that could get there and fill niches quickly.
This helped the dinosaurs with their upright posture
become dominant on the planet
Massospondylus was a basal sauropodomorph, hailing from the early jurassic.
Known since its discovery in 1854 by Sir Richard Owen
Massospondylus represents one of the longest known dinosaurs from this time period
due to debates on where Massospondylus should be placed within the sauropods
a study was organized to look at CT scans of the skull to understand the evolution and
differences between different species of early sauropods to understand where
Exactly Massospondylus should be placed.
The conclusion of the study was that due to a unique evolutionary
designs inside the skull Massospondylidae should stand as its own clade
Additionally, the researchers released the model of the skull for free online
Meaning that now you can 3d print your own dinosaur skull link in the doobly-doo
An ornithopod dinosaur has been described from a tail and leg from Australia's Eumeralla Formation
The formation has been interpreted as a 600 meter wide river
That was at least 25 meters deep.
Now coming from Arizona, any river
with water is a strange thing to me. And any river over 20 feet is downright scary!
The research on this River Formation is still in its early phases
However the partial ornithopod dinosaur that drowned here over 112 million years ago
Indicates that future searches in this area could prove fruitful.
In addition, it's helped to illuminate the evolution of the southern dinosaurs
as the species found has different number of tail vertebra than other closely related species from the dinosaur cove formation
Potentially indicating a transition from this species found in the Eumeralla formation to Antarctic species such as Morrosaurus.
Researchers in New Zealand
uncovered a large bat dating from between 16 and 19 million years ago
Named Vulcanops, the study showed that it probably belongs in the same family as New Zealand's modern-day short-tailed bats
Mystancinidae. While modern species roost in tree hollows despite foraging on the ground
It's believed that this bat species was so large that it couldn't fly at all instead burrowing for safety
Additionally it helps to shed light
on how the only flying mammals spread around the world and how mammals spread from Australia across the sea
to New Zealand.
When thinking of animals that use tails as weapons, you're probably thinking of dinosaurs with things like Stegosaurus
Having its thagomizers, or Ankylosaur tail clubs
However there were other species that also had this kind of weaponry. In the Pleistocene 2.5 million years ago
Glyptodons evolved spiked tails and in the Mesozoic some sauropods also evolved clubs that resembled those of the Ankylosaurs
Additionally there is a group of prehistoric Turtles that evolved hardened tail bones to use for defense.
With the exception of one species
Smaug, an African lizard, all of the animals that have these tail weapons have a number of traits in common
large size
Armour plating, and herbivory.
Due to these kinds of adaptations
Being found in multiple groups spread across many millions of years of evolution
It makes sense that this kind of adaptations would evolve and have the prerequisite of requiring
herbivory, large size, and armor.
And so it's likely that we will see this adaptation again because it has shown up so many times in the fossil record however
The authors also note that it probably won't show up soon due to our current day lack of heavily armored large herbivores
The Permian Triassic extinction wiped out over 90 percent of life in the oceans
and this has been attributed to the eruptions of the Siberian traps a series of volcanoes that raised temperatures and
Released co2 into the waterways.
However a study of ammonites coming from Iran
Indicates that there may have been multiple smaller extinctions just before the main Permian event
Combined with evidence from other regions the authors suggest that there may have been a wider spread
deterioration of environments before the final Permian event in eruption sealed the extinction
Unbeknownst to them, NASA scientists had been walking over dinosaur tracks for years at their own Goddard Space Center in Maryland
the find came in 2012 when Ray Stanford was dropping off his wife for work and
noticed the fossils just outside of the parking lot at the center.
The study that was completed this month
revealed an 8 foot long slab full of prints including prints from sauropods
Pterosaurs, nodosaurs, and many mammals including one mammal print that would have belonged to his species around the size of a badger
throughout the Mesozoic
Mammals were very small and so this badger size species would have been among the largest mammals of the time period.
With relatively few mammal finds from the time of dinosaurs
This find with a multitude of mammal tracks helps to give insight into how mammals diversified throughout the Cretaceous and during the age of dinosaurs
The Late Cretaceous of Africa has been a hard place for scientists to study with dinosaur fossils specifically having been nearly unheard of
That changed this month, however for the description of a Titanosaurus sauropod
Named Mansourasaurus, the species showed a lot of similarities to the eurasian clade of sauropods
Showing that africa was not nearly as isolated as once believed during the Cretaceous
After the breakup of Pangaea and then the breakup of South America and Africa, Africa was long believed to have been completely isolated
until it finally reunited with Asia through the Arabian Peninsula.
The finding of this dinosaur and others like a French Abelisaur which has similarities to African species
Shows that Africa was not nearly as isolated as once believed in the Late Cretaceous and that in fact many species
propagated between the continents
Complex feathers are even older than previously thought
Archaeopteryx is the longest known member of a group of dinosaurs called the Avialae, which would eventually evolve into modern-day birds
It was also the oldest known species
until the discovery of Caihong Juji this year.
Caihong sets the dates for complex feathers and for the group back 10 million years from the time of Archaeopteryx 150
Million years ago to the time that Caihong lived in
160 million years ago
additionally Caihong had longer and more densely arranged feathers than Archaeopteryx
giving indications that flight started early for dinosaurs
In the feathers there were preserved melanosomes as well helping to give us an insight into the color of Caihong
Darkly colored across its body bu with bright potentially iridescent plumage across its head and neck much like a hummingbird
This is just another complex feature that early dinosaurs can add to their feathers
In more contemporary news YunYang County in China has opened a bidding process to open a dinosaur based park
inside of its township of Pu’an
the head of the county has said that they aim to make a team of the top planners
and paleontologists from around the world.
In 2015, Pu’an saw the discovery of a
150 meter long dinosaur wall which helped to give a lot of insights in the paleontological world to the
Evolutionary events that were happening in the early Jurassic.
This park plans to be on that time period making it a true Jurassic Park
Thanks for watching everyone
It's really good to be able to do this and keep
Researching all the new things that are happening in this new year. A lot of big finds already. If you have a time royal tyrrell
Museum has started their speaker series, which they are uploading online on their YouTube channel, which is in my featured channels
So you can watch longer talks about very specific studies that are being done
So feel free to watch those if you are interested.
Take care, save the planet, don't go extinct
