In our 155th episode, we got to chat with Dr. Matthew Lamanna, assistant curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose research focuses on cretaceous dinosaurs of the southern hemisphere, with field research in Antarctica, Australia, Argentina, and Egypt, and the mesozoic evolution of birds. You can learn more about his work at Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, at antarcticdinos.org.

Episode 155 is also about Appalachiosaurus, the most well known theropod from eastern North America.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

The dinosaur of the day: Appalachiosaurus

Tyrannosauroid that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Alabama, US

Name means “Appalachian lizard”

Named after the region in the U.S., Appalachia, which is the same name as the island continent where Appalachiosaurus lived

Only one species: Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis

Species name is for Montgomery County, in Alabama

Most well known theropod from eastern North America

Before Appalachiosaurus was found, the only other tyrannosaur found in the eastern part of the U.S. was Dryptosaurus (which is less derived than Appalachiosaurus)

David King found the fossils in July 1982

Fossils were found in central Alabama (Demopolis Chalk Formation)

Named in 2005 by Thomas Carr, Thomas Williamson, and David Schwimmer

Only a juvenile has been found so far

Only partial remains have been found (parts of the skull, some vertebrae, parts of the pelvis, most of the hindlimbs)

Fossils are at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama

Juvenile was over 23 ft (7 m) long and weighed 1300 lb (600 kg)

Bipedal predator

Very similar skeleton to Albertosaurus, though a comparison found that Albertosaurus had a stronger bite force, and the two would have filled different ecological niches

Has six low crest lines on the top of its snout (ornamentation?), also seen in Alioramus, an Asian tyrannosaurid

Not sure what its forelimbs looked like, though most large tyrannosaurids had small forelimbs with only two digits on each hand

Deinosuchus tooth marks were found on Appalachiosaurus (and there are signs of healing, two tail vertebrae were fused together, possibly because of new bone growth after the injury)

Fun Fact:

Why did Ornithischians evolve quadrapedality? Possibly head mass (Ceratopsians); Herbivory (large guts to cope with lots of fiber); or a shift in posture with head near the ground.

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