Episode 243 is all about Tuojiangosaurus, a dinosaur that resembles Stegosaurus with thinner plates.

We also interview Jen Bauer, a postdoctoral associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History, with a focus on the myFOSSIL project and the Thompson Institute for Earth Systems. She is also the co-creator, along with Adriane Lam, of Time Scavengers

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

Aquilarhinus, the new hadrosaur from Texas with a shovel bill and an eagle nose source

A large group of opalized dinosaur fossils were found in Lightning Ridge, Australia source

The lawsuit over the dueling dinosaurs is now at the Montana Supreme Court source

The dinosaur of the day: Tuojiangosaurus

Stegosaurid that lived in the Late Jurassic, in what is now Sichuan Province, China (Upper Shaximiao Formation)

About 23 ft (7 m) long, and about 2.8 tonnes (Gregory Paul estimated 2.8 tonnes for a specimen about 21 ft (6.5 m) long)

Described in 1977 by Dong Zhiming and others, but the description was mostly of traits that other stegosaurs had

Peter Galton wrote about an autapomorphy in 1990 (pairs of spines at the base of the tail, the thagomizer, had bony skirts that ran from the front to the sides)

Had two spikes that pointed out from the end of the tail (thagomizer), though Dong thought there may have been four spikes. Gregory Paul described them as a “pin-cushion array” with two vertical pairs of spikes and another pair of spikes that pointed behind

Had rows of plates on the spine, the tallest ones around the hip area

Plates near the neck and the front of the body were rounded, plates near the back were more pointy and triangular

The plates were shaped in a way that looked like modified spikes

Dong estimated 17 pairs of plates and spikes

Had a narrow, low head

Had a bulky body

Had short limbs, especially the forelimbs

Ate ground vegetation and probably kept its head close to the ground (had teeth better for soft vegetation)

Fossils were found in 1974, during construction of a dam in Zigong, Sichuan

Type species is Tuojiangosaurus multispinus

Name means “Tuo River Lizard”

Species name means “many spines”

Found two specimens initially (more specimens have since been referred to Tuojiangosaurus, including juveniles)

Holotype is mostly complete, but missing parts of the skull, lower jaws, tail, and limbs (when it was described, it was the most complete stegosaur skeleton found in Asia)

Sister taxa to Stegosaurus

Can see Tuojiangosaurus mount at the Municipal Museum of Chongqing, in China, and another mount at the Beijing Museum of Natural History (fighting a Yangchuanosaurus)

Can also see a Tuojiangosaurus cast at the Natural History Museum in London

Fun Fact: There is a formation of cretaceous rock larger than Montana in central Africa that is completely unexplored.