Episode 140 is all about Liliensternus, a basal Neotheropod that lived in the Triassic in what is now Germany.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

The dinosaur of the day: Liliensternus

Basal Neotheropod that lived in the Triassic in what is now Germany

Found in the Trossingen Formation along with fossils of Ruehleia, a sauropodomorph, by Count Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern, in 1932-1933

Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern was a count, amateur paleontologist, and medical doctor. He founded a paleontological museum in his castle in Bedheim, Germany in July 1934

Liliensternus specimens were in Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern’s castle until 1969, when they were moved to the Humboldt Museum in Berlin

Liliensternus liliensterni is named after the count

Liliensternus was originally assigned to Halticosaurus in 1934, as Halticosaurus liliensterni. Friedrich vone Huene named Halticosaurus in 1908, but now most bones thought to be Halticosaurus have been reassigned to other dinosaurs, including Liliensternus

Type species is now Liliensternus liliensterni

Gilles Cuny and Peter Galton described a new species, Liliensternus airelensis in 1993. But there were more differences found between Liliensternus airelensis and Liliensternus liliensterni, and in 2007 Martin Ezcurra and Cuny named it as a new genus, Lophostropheus

Samuel Paul Welles found in 1984 that Halticosaurus longotarsus, the type species of Halticosaurus, was a nomen dubium. Most descriptions of Halticosaurus were about Halticosaurus liliensterni, so Welles named the new genus Liliensternus in 1984

A left metatarsal found in 1834 was later assigned to Liliensternus (first thought to be a manual or pedal element in 1855, then in 1908 thought to be a pubic fragment of Plateosaurus, then re-identified as part of Liliensternus in 2003

More bones found in 1961 were referred to Liliensternus in 1992 by Sander (found in Switzerland)

Specimens found may have been a juvenile or subadult

Two specimens found (parts of skull, lower jaws, vertebrae, tibia, femur)

Up to 17 ft (5 m) long, and weighed 280 lb (127 kg), though some estimate it to weigh up to 441 lb (200 kg)

Could be an intermediate between Coelophysis and Dilophosaurus

Tibia is shorter than femur (just like Dilophosaurus)

May have had a crest, like Dilophosaurus, but skull is not well known

Also has a short hip bone (ilium) like Dilophosaurus

In 1989 Rowe said that Liliensternus was more derived than Dilophosaurus

Bipedal carnivore

May have preyed on Plateosaurus, a basal sauropodomorph that lived around the same time and place

Was probably fast, and could catch ornithischians, and could use its teeth to slash and wound prosauropods, like Plateosaurus

Probably lived on floodplains along with reptiles and therapsids (which gave rise to mammals)

Fun Fact:

“Transitional” (fossil) is a misleading term

Published in Palaeontologia Electronica By Mario Bronzati

“Transitional” implies some type of design or desired evolutionary path