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Daily Dinosaur Facts


alex602h

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Or, well, anything paleontology-related facts, but that's not a very catchy name. 

Daily fact #1

The caudal ribs (the little pieces of bone that stick out of the sides of the tail vertebra) of Carnotaurus' tail base were especially long, and tightly interconnected, which made the tail very rigid. Non-avian sauropsids (basically anything reptilian, such as lizards, dinosaurs, crocodiles etc.) pull their hind legs backwards using a muscle that connects from their femur to their tail.

The fact that the tail was very rigid on carnotaurus made it a very good attachment site for very large muscles, and it was able to accelerate very quickly. But that very rigid tail also meant that carnotaurus wouldn't have been able to make tight turns very easily. 

That made carnotaurus pretty much the cheetah of the cretacious!

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Daily fact #2

Tyrannosaurus Rex almost didn't exist, due to a different name, Manospondylus Gigas. M. Gigas consisted of two vertebrae (one of which was later lost), that was discovered and described in 1886. In 1902, an almost complete skeleton of T. Rex was discovered and described. Later, M. Gigas got lumped into T. Rex.

Due to the law of priority, where the first named taxon overrides the newer taxon, how come M. Gigas didn't stay? 

That's because after M. Gigas got described, it wasn't mentioned too often, and became a "nomen oblitum" (forgotten name). M. Gigas also consisted of very little material, so it wasn't a good candidate for a new species. 

And that is the story of how we didn't get Manospondylus Gigas. 

(Various papers usually vaguely mention M. Gigas, rather than focus on it. It is also mentioned in T. Rex's Wikipedia page. Sorry I couldn't provide a stable source) 

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Daily fact #3

Parasaurolophus (and other lambeosaurines) had hollow crests/horns that connected to their noses. This means that they might have been able to redirect air from their nose and lungs to their crests, and use their crest as a trumpet! This trumpet sound was most likely used as either communication or as threat displays. 

Here's a cool video of what that might have sounded like. 

Source

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Daily fact #4

Stop talking about Troodon. It's a dubious genus, a wastebasket taxon, it's not real. You can talk about Stenonychosaurus and Latenivenatrix instead. 

The source  (it's paid access >:(

Blog talking about it

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Do you guys have a favourite dinosaur? If so, what is it? I also will post a fact about it here if you want :D 

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3 minutes ago, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

Do you guys have a favourite dinosaur? If so, what is it? I also will post a fact about it here if you want :D

thanatotheristes will always be my beloved 

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11 minutes ago, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

Do you guys have a favourite dinosaur? If so, what is it? I also will post a fact about it here if you want :D 

i li,ke protoceratops bhes a funny little gy

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17 hours ago, takoyamaaaS said:

thanatotheristes will always be my beloved 

The smol scrunkly! ❤️

Sorry there wasn't as much I could find about it. :(

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Daily fact #5

Thanatotheristes was the last needed dinosaur to create the new clade Daspletosaurini. It had a long, deep (deep means long from top to bottom) snout like more basal tyrannosaurines.

Source (it's paid access again grrrr)

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18 hours ago, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

Do you guys have a favourite dinosaur? If so, what is it? I also will post a fact about it here if you want :D 

the microraptor and archaeopteryx are forever my little mipys,,<3

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21 hours ago, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

 

Do you guys have a favourite dinosaur? If so, what is it? I also will post a fact about it here if you want :D 

I can't say I have a favourite dinosaur, but I have a soft spot for ankylosaurus and the likes (borealopelta and minmi) and the Isle's (unfortunately unrealistic) interpretation of hypsilophodon.

My actual favourites aren't dinosaurs at all; pteranodon and hatzegopteryx

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3 hours ago, 𝔼𝕣𝕚𝕔 𝕋𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕟 said:

the microraptor and archaeopteryx are forever my little mipys,,<3

tell the archaeopteryx

that i never wanted this

featherhead metropolis

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26 minutes ago, Impersonation of cucumbers said:

I can't say I have a favourite dinosaur, but I have a soft spot for ankylosaurus and the likes (borealopelta and minmi) and the Isle's (unfortunately unrealistic) interpretation of hypsilophodon.

My actual favourites aren't dinosaurs at all; pteranodon and hatzegopteryx

You play The Isle? 

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1 minute ago, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

*Gasp* you play The Isle? 

Sometimes. My sister is addicted to it and is actually playing it right now :Onbu_laugh:

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On 10/6/2022 at 8:04 PM, GAMINGSPOOKIE said:

i li,ke protoceratops bhes a funny little gy

Daily fact #5

Protoceratops would group up with other Protoceratops, though they'd only group up with individuals of similar age. But this didn't stop them from creating gigantic herds, which were so large that other dinosaurs didn't even dare go to Protoceratops herds. This is proven by the burial grounds, which contain large amounts of Protoceratops, but not much else. Protoceratops were fierce little guys.

Source

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On 10/3/2022 at 2:38 PM, Alex the Dead Lizard said:

The fact that the tail was very rigid on carnotaurus made it a very good attachment site for very large muscles, and it was able to accelerate very quickly. But that very rigid tail also meant that carnotaurus wouldn't have been able to make tight turns very easily. 

That made carnotaurus pretty much the cheetah of the cretacious!

Cheetahs are the only animals that can turn in mid-air-

Cheetahs can turn fine, they just cant run for a long time-

(sorry if someone already posted this, i didnt read the comments)

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1 hour ago, Fox leaf said:

Cheetahs are the only animals that can turn in mid-air-

Cheetahs can turn fine, they just cant run for a long time-

(sorry if someone already posted this, i didnt read the comments)

I didn't know that, cool! 

Also, I didn't make it a 1:1 comparison, which is why I added "pretty much" ^^'

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On 10/7/2022 at 1:57 PM, 𝔼𝕣𝕚𝕔 𝕋𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕟 said:

the microraptor and archaeopteryx are forever my little mipys,,<3

Daily fact #6

Microraptor had black iridescent feathers. That can be seen because the melanosomes (organelles in the cells of the feathers that produce melanin) in the exceptionally preserved feathers are narrow, which they also are in extant iridescent birds.

Source (paid acces, but still says enough in the abstract)

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On 10/7/2022 at 5:47 PM, Impersonation of cucumbers said:

I can't say I have a favourite dinosaur, but I have a soft spot for ankylosaurus and the likes (borealopelta and minmi) and the Isle's (unfortunately unrealistic) interpretation of hypsilophodon.

My actual favourites aren't dinosaurs at all; pteranodon and hatzegopteryx

Awwww yeah a Romanian creature! Just like me!

Daily Fact #7

Hatzegopteryx might not have had as long a neck as previously thought. Its neck might have instead been short, stocky, and robust. This can be inferred from the large and thick neck vertebrae.

Source

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Daily fact #8

When Elasmosaurus was first discovered, it was thought that its head was on the end of its tail. Three years after its discovery did Joseph Leidy notice that its head was mounted on the wrong end of Elasmosaurus' body, and then corrected Edward Drinker Cope, the guy who described Elasmosaurus.

357901209_Skrmbillede2022-09-16193202.thumb.png.6a3a7b3c19f4e20059227bee6bad9001.png

(picture not by me, hehe funny paleomeme)

It is quite hard to find a source, since, you know, it was back in the 1800's when this happened. It is also written in Elasmosaurus' Wikipedia page (text highlighted)

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Daily Fact #9

Elasmotherium might not have had as large a horn as previously thought. The large "horn base" was hollow, due to it being a nasal cavity, which might have increased Elasmotherium's sense of smell, and even amplified sounds. Since it was hollow, it wasn't a very good base for a large horn.

A Farewell to the Siberian Unicorn?  – Max's Blogo-Saurus

Old vs new Elasmotherium, image not by me

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