Episode 156 is all about Augustynolophus, the official state dinosaur of California.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

The dinosaur of the day: Augustynolophus

Saurolophine hadrosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now California (Moreno Formation)

Name means Augustyn’s crest

Named for Gretchen Augustyn, to honor the Augustyn family, who helped support the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum in L.A., and the fact that it’s related to Saurolophus

Type species is Augustynolophus morrisi

Species name is in honor of paleontologist William Morris, to honor his contributions to understanding hadrosaurids

Originally thought to be Saurolophus morrisi (described in 2013), but a more detailed examination found that its skull was very different, especially compared to Saurolophus osborni and Saurolophus angusti

Named in 2014 by Albert Prieto-Márquez,‭ ‬Jonathan R.‭ ‬Wagner,‭ ‬Phil R.‭ ‬Bell‭, and ‬Luis M.‭ ‬Chiappe

Two specimens have been found

Juvenile specimen was found in 1939 (parts of the skull and limbs), much smaller than the holotype

The holotype was found in 1943 (most of the skull, vertebrae, and limb and hand bones)

Had a solid nasal crest, similar to Saurolophus

Not much known about Augustynolophus

Herbivorous and chewed its food

Adult skull was about 3 ft (1 m) long, so may have been a pretty big dinosaur

May have been 26 ft (8 m) long and weighed 3 tons

Augustynolophus is a sister taxon to Saurolophus. Augustynolophus, Saurolophus, and Prosaurolophus are part of Saurolophini

Augustynolophus shows there was more hadrosaur diversity than previously thought in North America in the Late Cretaceous

Augustynolophus specimens have only been found in California so far

Became the official state dinosaur of California in September 2017

Augustynolophus has a Twitter account. The bio reads: Native Californian, Los Angeles resident, older than Jerry Brown (barely), vegetarian, firm believer in science.

Can see Augustynolophus at the Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (has both specimens)

Fun Fact:

Cope’s Rule (the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to grow in body size over evolutionary time) wasn’t created by Edward Drinker Cope, and it’s wrong. Therefore, Cope’s Rule is neither Cope’s, nor a rule.

From information in “Cope’s rule and the adaptive landscape of dinosaur body size evolution” by Roger B. J. Benson, Gene Hunt, Matthew T. Carrano, Nicolás Campione

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and exhibits. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs