Episode 180 is all about Nipponosaurus a hadrosaur found on the island North of Hokkaido—then owned by Japan, but now by Russia—it can be seen in the Holoscape interface in the Innovation Center in Jurassic World

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

The dinosaur of the day: Nipponosaurus

Appears in the Holoscape interface in the Innovation Center in Jurassic World (probably lived in Gallimimus Valley)

Type species is Nipponosaurus sachalinensis

Lambeosaurine hadrosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now the southern part of Sinegorsk, Sakhalin Island in Russia (which was part of Japan, specifically Karafuto Prefecture, when the dinosaur was named—that land was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1945)

Name means “Japanese lizard”

Named in 1936 by Professor Takumo Nagao from the Imperial University of Hokkaido

Name refers to Nippon, the Japanese name of Japan

First dinosaur named based on a specimen found on Japanese territory

Discovered in November 1934, during construction of a hospital

Found a juvenile specimen, about 60% complete (includes dentary, skull elements, vertebrae, and parts of the forelimbs and hindlimbs)

Hard to figure out when it lived, but based on associated mollusks, probably lived around 80 million years ago

Species name refers to Sakhalin

When it was discovered, didn’t find much of the skull or limbs, so there was a second expedition in 1937, where they found more limb material for the holotype. Nagao described this material in 1938

A humerus found in a pit near Hashima Island in Japan was referred to Nipponosaurus in 1967, but hasn’t since been studied

At first thought to be an adult, because it had co-ossified sacral vertebra, but later on scientists doubted this, because the specimen was so small

Some scientists think it doesn’t have any diagnostic characteristics, and therefore is a nomen dubium

Redescribed in 2004, and found to be a juvenile, and a valid taxon (a review of Japanese dinosaurs in 1994 suggested that many Asian hadrosaurs were incomplete and may actually be the same species)

The 2004 redescription said there were three diagnostic characters, but some scientists refuted it, saying those characters were found in other hadrosaurids

Reexamined again in 2017, which confirmed it was a juvenile, and found another three diagnostic characters (a wide structure on the lower jaw, small neural spines, short legs)

In 2017 Ryuji Takasaki dissected three bones (femur, rib, chevron) and found only two lines of arrested growth, which show it was a juvenile

About 13 ft (4 m) long

Had a hollow head crest, though remains found were incomplete, so hard to know details (reconstructions usually made based on compairsons to similar dinosaurs)

Because specimen found was a juvenile, it’s possible the head crest changed as it matured

Probably buried in a marine setting, not far from shore, based on terrestrial plant fossils found nearby. Because of this, Nipponosaurus may have lived on low-lying plains near the coast

Fun Fact:

Stegosaurus plates are just highly modified osteoderms like the armor on the back of an Ankylosaurus

This episode was brought to you by:

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