Episode 278 is all about Kakuru, the only named dinosaur from South Australia.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

A new sauropod from Southern Mongolia was named Abdarainurus barsboldi source

New research found Troodon, Maiasaura, & Hypacrosaurus had warm bodies source

Northwestern Community College has a hadrosaur that Associate’s students can work on source

The Field Museum “let out” Sue the T. rex like the Shedd Aquarium penguins source

The upcoming comic Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 will include a T. rex Batman source

Marvel’s Fantastic Four has Sky, an alien superhero with the ability to talk to dinosaurs source

A mom in the UK created a dinosaur themed game to keep her kids entertained source

A life-size Zuul cake was made on Buddy vs. Duff on Food Network source

The dinosaur of the day: Kakuru

Theropod that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Australia

Probably carnivorous and bipedal

Probably 6.5 to 10 ft (2 to 3 m) long

Probably had long, slender legs, so was probably a fast runner

Hard to know for sure, because holotype is the complete right tibia (shinbone), referred material is a pedal phalanx (toe bone)

Similarities to Avimimus (tail), Microvenator, Ornitholestes (tibia proportions), Calamospondylus and Coelurus (in form)

Tibia is broken into about 10 large pieces, and is about 13 in (33 cm) long

Tibia is slender and seems to be getting long and narrow up to the astragalus (ankle bone), though no ankle bone was found

May be related to coelurids, or could be Abelisauroidea (based on the way the tibia near the ankle bone looks)

Type and only species: Kakuru kujani

Fossils found were opalized, and discovered in opal fields in Andamook, South Australia

Anthony Fleming acquired the fossils in 1973 for his opal shop, and paleontologist and then curator of South Australian Museum Neville Pledge heard about it from a Mr. Santini, an opal miner

Fleming allowed photos to be taken and two casts (the tibia/lower leg bone, and the phalanx/toe bone) to be made

Soon after the casts were made, the fossils were auctioned off to an anonymous buyer, and no one heard about it again, until 2004 when the South Australian Museum bought the tibia for $22,000

In December 2018, South Australian Museum got the toe bone, after Joy Kloester, who won an auction bid online (a liquidation sale in Sydney that was all fossils), asked opal buyers for advice, and they connected her with the South Australian Museum, which now has the toe bone on display

Neville Pledge and Ralph Molnar described and named Kakuru in 1980, based on the casts

Genus name means “rainbow serpent” in Australian Aboriginal mythology (comes from a dreaming story about a rainbow serpent)

Species name refers to the local Aboriginal tribe, the Kujani (also spelled Guyani)

Casts are at the South Australian Museum Peabody Museum, Yale University, Australian Museum, Queensland Museum

Fun Fact: Victoria and Queensland have the most (non-avian) dinosaur fossils in Australia. According to paleobiodb.org

State Count Victoria 66 Queensland 64 Western Australia 53 New South Wales 26 South Australia 3 Northern Territory 0 Tasmania 0 Australian Capital Territory 0

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