Episode 132 is all about the Acanthopholis, the platypus of ankylosaurs (pun intended).

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

The dinosaur of the day: Acanthopholis

Name means “spiny scales”

Ankylosaur in the family Nodosauridae that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now England

John Griffiths, a fossil collector, found bones in 1865 at the shoreline near Kent, and he sold them to Dr. John Percy, a metallurgist. Percy let Thomas Huxley know about the bones, and Huxley paid Griffiths to dig up all the fossils at that site. He found more bones and some body armor parts

Huxley named Acanthopholis horridus in 1867

The species name means “frightening” or “rough”

In 1890 Arthur Smith Woodward renamed the species name to Acanthopholis horrida, because “pholis” is feminine

Type specimen consists of three teeth, a basic cranium, dorsal vertebra, spikes, and scutes

Has a long, confusing history

In 1869, Harry Govier Seeley named three new Acanthopolis species: macrocercus, platypus, and stereocercus. Then he split off material of Acanthopholis stereocercus and named a new Anoplosaurus species based on part of it: Anaplosaurus major. And he described another species, Acanthopholis eucercus, based on six caudal vertebrae. But in 1902 Franz Nopcsa reassigned that Acanthopholis major, and renamed Anoplosaurus curtonotus to Acanthopholis curtonotus.

In 1879 Seeley also named Syngonosaurus based on part of material from Acanthopholis macrocercus

In 1956, Friedrich von Huene renamed Acnthopholis platypus to Macrurosaurus platypus (not everyone agrees with this)

Then in 1999 Xabier Pereda-Superbiola and Paul Barrett reviewed all Acanthopholis material and found all species were nomina dubia (specimens were composites of ankylosaur and ornithopod remains). Acanthopholis platypus, for example, had sauropod metatarsals. Seeley also had two unpublished names he used to label museum specimens: Acanthopholis hughesii and Acanthopholis keepingi. These are nomina nuda (means naked name)

Originally Huxley assigned it to Scelidosauridae. Then in 1902 Nopcsa created the family Acanthopholididae, and later named the subfamily Acanthopholinae (changed it to Acanthopholidae in 1928). Now it’s considered to be a nodosauridae in ankylosauria

Had thick armor made of oval keeled plates that were horizontal on the skin

Had long spikes on the neck and shoulder, along the spine

Quadrupedal and herbivorous

About 10-18 ft (3-5.5 m) long and weighed about 840 lb (380 kg) (not known for sure, since it’s based on fragments)

Fun fact:

Strongest bite force ever measured: “16,414 N [3,690 lb] was directly measured for a bob-tailed, 4.51 m Australian saltwater crocodile [Crocodylus porosus]”

Compared to an estimated 7,761 lb for a T. rex

Humans top out at about 200 lb on the molars T. rex can bite about 40 times as strong as a human Normal human chewing is about 70 lb



Highest bite pressure ever measured: “2,473 MPa [358,678 psi] was deduced for a 2.99 m” Australian saltwater crocodile

Compared to an estimated 431,000 psi for a T. rex It only takes 65 MPa (9,400psi) to break bone with one bite



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