Episode 162 is all about Dracoraptor, a theropod whose name means “dragon thief.”

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In this episode, we discuss:

The best of 2017:

The dinosaur of the day: Dracoraptor

Neotheropod that lived in the Early Jurassic in what is now Wales Name means “dragon thief” Welsh flag has a red dragon Found in 2014 and 2015 by brothers and amateur paleontologists Nick and Rob Hanigan, near Penarth in Wales. They were look for ichthyosaurs and found boulders, with dinosaur bones sticking out of them, that had fallen from a cliff face Described in 2016 by David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells, and John Nudds Nick and Rob suggested the genus name Type species is Dracoraptor hanigani The species name is in honor of the Hanigan brothers Found in the Blue Lias Formation (right between a layer with a Jurassic ammonite and a layer that represents the Triassic-Jurassic boundary) Skull is about two-thirds complete, but was disarticulated Juvenile specimen found, and was 7 ft (2.1 m) long Adults could have grown up to 10 ft (3 m) long Bipedal, with a long tail Had dagger-shaped, serrated teeth Had small teeth (.4 in or 1 cm) long, so it probably ate small lizards and mammals Had a furcula (wishbone) Had long legs and was probably a fast runner The Dracoraptor specimen probably was washed into sea, but the paleontologists who described it tentatively said it was a “shore-dwelling animal” Dracoraptor is the oldest Jurassic dinosaur known, so far Most complete theropod from Wales, so far Basal Neotheropoda, and the most basal coelophysoid Only had three teeth in the premaxilla, which is a basal trait Vidovoc said, “So this dinosaur starts to fill in some gaps in our knowledge about the dinosaurs that survived the Triassic extinction and gave rise to all the dinosaurs that we know from Jurassic Park, books and TV ” Can see Dracoraptor at the National Museum Wales in Cardiff



Fun fact:

There are at least a couple accounts of mammals eating non-avian dinosaurs. (from “Aucasaurus: Episode 113”)

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