Episode 553: The most complete pachycephalosaur ever found!. Zavacephale is both the oldest and most complete pachycephalosaur ever found. Plus three more new dinosaurs and Michele Hollow joins us to discuss Mary Anning.

News:

• The most complete and oldest known pachycephalosaur was discovered and named Zavacephale rinpoche source
• There’s a new “thunder dome” pachycephalosaur, Brontotholus harmoni source
• There’s a new flat-headed hadrosaur, Ahshislesaurus wimani, that was as large as a T. rex source
• There’s a new hadrosaur dinosaur from Morocco named Taleta taleta (yes the genus and species name are the same) source

Interview:

Michele Hollow, an award-winning journalist, and author of the book “Jurassic Girl: The Adventures of Mary Anning, Paleontologist and the First Female Fossil Hunter”, a historical fiction book for both young and less young readers.

Sponsors:

The dinosaur of the day: Stenopelix

• Basal ceratopsian that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany (Obernkirchen Sandstone Formation)
• Looked somewhat like Psittacosaurus
• Small, walked on two legs, had a long tail
• Paleoart also depicts having bristles on top of the tail
• Don’t know what its head looked like though
• Small, estimated to be 4.6 ft (1.4 m) long and weigh 22 lb (10 kg)
• Femur (thigh bone) is about 5.5 in (14 cm) long
• Herbivorous
• Fossil found in 1855, in a sandstone quarry
• Partial skeleton found (no skull)
• Know this dinosaur from a natural sandstone mould (hollow impressions on two slabs, that only partly overlap)
• Stenopelix is the best known dinosaur from the “Wealden” (Lower Cretaceous) of Germany
• Holotype has impressions of a nearly complete skeleton (minus the skull and neck)
• Impressions include back bones (vertebrae), parts of the hips, more than 30 tail bones (caudal vertebrae), ribs, parts of the shoulder and hands, parts of the legs and feet, including a complete right foot
• Casts of the holotype have been made
• Small individual, likely a subadult based on lack of fusions in some of the bones
• Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer named Stenopelix in 1857 (although one paper said it was 1859)
• Type and only species is Stenopelix valdensis
• Genus name means “narrow pelvis”
• Species name refers to the Wealden
• The “Wealden” refers to multiple places, not just the Wealden Group in England. In this case, it’s a basin in Lower Saxony, Germany
• Details in the hips make it unique, such as the way parts of it taper to a rounded point
• Hard to classify, and has been debated. In the past considered to be some sort of ornithopod, but also debates whether it’s a basal pachycephalosaur or basal ceratopsian (those two groups are closely related). Most recent study classified it as chaoyangsaurid, which are some of the earliest known marginocephalians (group that includes pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians), known for having sharp beaks and small frills
• Because there is no skull, we don’t know what its beak or frill looked like, which makes it hard to classify
• Classified based on features of its hips
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place (mostly based on tracks) include ankylosaurs, iguanodonts, ornithischians, and theropods)

Fun Fact:

Tens of millions of years ago, dinosaurs started getting shorter lower legs, which helped make it possible for peacocks to strut, penguins to waddle, and turkeys to trot.

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