Ceratosaurus: Beast of the Week

This week we shall be looking at a popular meat-eater with some truly unique features.  Enter Ceratosaurus!

Watercolor life reconstruction of Ceratosaurus nascornis eating the ancient lungfish, Ceratodus robustus by Christopher DiPiazza.

Ceratosaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, in what is now the United States, specifically Utah and Colorado.  Bones thought to be from Ceratosaurus have also been unearthed in Portugal.  As an adult it would have measured about twenty feet from nose to tail but one specimen suggests it may have grown even larger in some cases.  The genus name, "Ceratosaurus" translates to "Horned reptile/lizard" and refers to the horn-like protrusions on the animal's snout and over its eyes.

Bronze cast of a Ceratosaurus skull on display at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari new Mexico.

The most notable feature about Ceratosaurus is the presence of its "horns".  These bony structures aren't really horns as much as they are crests, however, since they were extremely thin and delicate.  Whereas the horns of certain other dinosaurs, like Carnotaurus, were robust enough to have been effective weapons in life, the "horns" of Ceratosaurus would have easily broken if they were used in any sort of violent activity.  They were most likely used for display rather than for physical fighting.  Keep in mind that these crests would have had a layer of keratin growing over them, so they might have appeared even longer and possibly even a slightly different shape in life.  A juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton that was discovered showcases proportionally smaller crests on its skull, supporting the idea that they were for display, possibly helping individuals within the species to identify others as sexually mature or not.  They may have also been for display against other species, making Ceratosaurus' head look bigger and therefore more intimidating to rival meat-eaters, like Allosaurus. 

Juvenile Ceratosaurus skull on display at the North American Museum of Ancient Life. Note the smaller crests on the nose and above the eyes. (Photo credit: Jens Lallensack)

The crests weren't Ceratosaurus' only unique feature.  This dinosaur also had a row of small bony plates, called osteoderms, running down the center of its back.  This is a feature common in certain groups of dinosaurs, like the thyreophorans, like Stegosaurus, but is extremely rare in theropods.  The exact purpose is a mystery, but we can make some educated guesses.  As with the head crests, these bony structures may have aided in display to other dinosaurs.  Perhaps males had longer plates than females?  Perhaps they were absent in juveniles?  Maybe they helped camouflage Ceratosaurus slightly by breaking up its basic body shape?  We may never know for sure.

Neck of the Ceratosaurus skeleton on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.  I circled a group of the osteoderms in yellow.

Ceratosaurus' tail was particularly deep and flattened laterally. This lead some to hypothesize that Ceratosaurus may have been a decent swimmer and specialized in hunting aquatic prey. (although there is little other evidence that suggests this)  Ceratosaurus also had short, but fully functional arms each tipped with four fingers and three claws.

Lastly, Ceratosaurus had the longest teeth proportional to its body of any known dinosaur.  The teeth were curved and serrated, like steak knives.  They look to be ideal for slashing chunks of flesh from bone, rather than crushing through armor and bone.  This is further supported by the fact that Ceratosaurus' lower jaw was rather thin, and therefore wouldn't have been capable of applying too much force or withstanding too much pressure before being injured.

Almost-complete(no arms!) Ceratosaurus skeletal mount on display at the National Museum in Washington D.C. 

Ceratosaurus bones have been found in the same formations as other, larger Jurassic meat eaters, like Allosaurus and Torvosaurus.  Most scientists agree that Ceratosaurus may have specialized in hunting a different kind of prey than its larger contemporaries, perhaps going after smaller animals, rather than giant sauropods and heavily-armed stegosaurs.  This is further supported by the fact that Ceratosaurus bones are particularly less common than most of the other dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of North America.  This could mean that Ceratosaurus typically dwelled in habitats slightly different from the rest of those dinosaurs where fossilization didn't take place as easily.

Sometimes I wonder what exactly prevented Ceratosaurus from existing close to the other megapredators of it's time...

They said it couldn't be done but I managed to make a cartoon merging Late Jurassic predators with Mean Girls.  It wasn't even that hard.

That's all for this week!  As always feel free to comment below!  Want to see a particular prehistoric beastie reviewed?  Let me know and I'll make it happen!

Works Cited

Carrano, M.T.; Sampson, S.D. (2008). "The Phylogeny of Ceratosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (2): 183–236.

Foster, John (2007). "Gargantuan to Minuscule: The Morrison Menagerie, Part II". Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp. 162–242. 

Gilmore, C.W. (1920). "Osteology of the carnivorous Dinosauria in the United States National Museum, with special reference to the genera Antrodemus (Allosaurus) and Ceratosaurus". Bulletin of the United States National Museum 110: 1–154.

Marsh, O.C. (1884). "Principal characters of American Jurassic dinosaurs, part VIII: The order Theropoda". American Journal of Science 27 (160): 329–340.

Rowe, T.; Gauthier, J. (1990). "Ceratosauria". In Weishampel, D.B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H. The Dinosauria. University of California Press. pp. 151–168. 

Lepidotes: Beast of the Week

 This wee we will look at a unique kind of prehistoric fish that swam in rivers and lakes while some of the largest dinosaurs walked on land.  Check out Lepidotes!

Watercolor reconstruction of Lepidotes gigas by Christopher DiPiazza.

Lepidotes was a genus of heavily scaled bony fish that lived in what is now Europe and North America during the early Jurassic between 180 and 175 million years ago.  The genus may have even persisted into the Early Cretaceous, as recent as 115 million years ago, but the identity of these later species has been proposed to be from a separate genus by some experts.  In life Lepidotes lived in mostly fresh water and some shallow salt water environments, and would have eaten small invertebrates.  The genus name translates to "covered with scales" in Greek.  From nose to tail most Lepidotes grew to about a foot in length (30 cm).  

Fossil of Lepidotes gigas (photo credit: Ghedo) Note the hard scales, which fossilized extra dark compared to the other parts of the fish.

Lepidotes is most known for its scales, which are by far the most commonly fount fossil from it, and were particularly hard and shiny.  Its closest living relatives are gars, which also have extremely tough armored scales.  Like Gars, the scales of Lepidotes acted as as armor against predators. Gars, however, are also known for their long bodies and snouts, lined with pointed teeth, while Lepidotes was convergently more shaped like a carp, with a taller, rounder body, and proportionally small round mouth.  

In the back of Lepidotes' mouth were rounded teeth, ideal for crushing shelled invertebrates on which it likely preyed on when alive.  Another interesting characteristic of Lepidotes was that both the upper and lower jaws were not attached directly to the rest of its skull, allowing it to have stretched its mouth out into a tube-like structure while sucking up food.  In addition to its body shape, this is another trait present in modern carp.  

References

 Agassiz, L. (1832), Untersuchungen über die fossilen Fische der Lias-Formation. Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde 

Frederickson, Joseph A.; Lipka, Thomas R.; Cifelli, Richard L. (2018-08-28). "Faunal composition and paleoenvironment of the Arundel Clay (Potomac Formation; Early Cretaceous), Maryland, USA". Palaeontologia Electronica.

Lambe, L.M. (1902). "New Genera and Species from the Belly River Series (mid cretaceous)". Geological Survey of Canada. Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology. 3: 25–81.

López-Arbarello, Adriana (2012-07-11). Steinke, Dirk (ed.). "Phylogenetic Interrelationships of Ginglymodian Fishes (Actinopterygii: Neopterygii)". PLOS ONE. 7 (7): e39370.

Polycotylus: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be checking out a beast that helps us understand how some prehistoric marine reptiles reproduced.  Check out Polycotylus latipinnis!

Polycotylus was a plesiosaur that lived in what is now Kansas, USA, during the late Cretaceous period, about 83.6 million years ago.  From snout to tail adults could grow to 18 feet (5.4 meters) long, and would have been a predator when alive, using its long snout full of interlocking cone-shaped teeth to capture smaller marine prey, like fish or squid.  The genus name, Polycotylus, translates to "many cupped vertebrae" in reference to the shape of its backbones.  

Polycotylus about to chomp a baby mosasaur.  Watercolor reconstruction by Christopher DiPiazza.

Plesiosaurs are most famous for having proportionally small heads with extremely long necks, but many kinds, like Polycotylus, were actually the opposite, possessing proportionally large heads and short necks.  They all had sturdy, somewhat turtle-shaped bodies, short tails, and four powerful flippers for swimming in the ocean.  Polycotylus' flippers were especially long and tapered at the tips, suggesting it was a particularly fast swimmer in life, which would have allowed it to pursue prey and also avoid becoming prey, itself, to predators, like the enormous mosasaurs it coexisted with.  

The famous Polycotylus specimen containing the bones of an unborn fetus (circled in white) on display at the Natural History Museum of LA County.

What Polycotylus is probably most famous for is the skeleton that was found with an unborn fetus still inside, showed Polycotylus gave birth to live young.  This is unusual since most reptiles reproduce by laying hard-shelled eggs, or sometimes, like with boas and rattlesnakes, keep the eggs inside until the babies hatch.  That being said, since very similar evidence of live birth has also been found in ichthyosaurs, a completely separate kind of prehistoric marine reptile, live birth seems to be more the norm in ancient marine reptiles, but also must have evolved convergently multiple times in these different groups.  This makes sense since the bodies of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs seem completely unfit for land, even for short periods of time, unlike modern sea turtles and some sea snakes endure to lay eggs on beaches.  What's even more interesting about Polycotylus' case is the fact that there was only one single unborn baby inside that measured almost a whopping five feet long.  Birthing one big baby, opposed to many smaller ones, is not a reproduction strategy typically seen in reptiles.  This implies that parents likely cared for the baby after birth, instead letting them go off on their own, like many modern reptiles do today.  

References

O'Keefe, F.R. (2004). "On the cranial anatomy of the polycotylid plesiosaurs, including new material of Polycotylus latipinnis, Cope, from Alabama". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (2): 326–340.

O'Keefe, F.R.; Chiappe, L.M. (2011). "Viviparity and K-selected life history in a Mesozoic marine plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia)". Science. 333 (6044): 870–873.

o'Keefe, F. R.; Sander, P. M.; Wintrich, T.; Werning, S. (2019). "Ontogeny of Polycotylid Long Bone Microanatomy and Histology". Integrative Organismal Biology. 1 (1): oby007.

Schumacher, B.A.; Martin, J.E. (2016). "Polycotylus latipinnis Cope (Plesiosauria, Polycotylidae), a nearly complete skeleton from the Niobrara Formation (early Campanian) of southwestern South Dakota". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 36 (1). el031341.

Heyuannia: beast of the Week

This week we will be checking out a dinosaur they helps us better understand dinosaur eggs, Heyuannia huangi!

Heyuannia was a theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now China and Mongolia during the latest Cretaceous period, between 70 and 66 million years ago. From beak to tail it measured almost 5 feet long (1.5meters) and was likely an omnivore when alive.  It's name translates to "from Heyuan" in reference to the region of China where its bones were first found. 

Watercolor life reconstruction of Heyuannia by Christopher DiPiazza.

Heyuannia was a member of the oviraptorosaur group of dinosaurs, known for being bird-shaped with long necks and short boxy skulls with powerful beaks.  Many of them also sported tall bony crests on their heads, but sadly the whole skull of Heyuannia has not been found so we don't know that part of it's anatomy for sure.  Like its relatives, Heyuannia may have been an omnivore, using its short, but powerful beak to process seeds, fruits, and other tough plant material, but would have also been equally efficient at eating small animals, including hard-shelled invertebrates.  

Heyuannia skeleton on display at the Heyuan City Museum in China.

Heyuannia had proportionally short arms and fingers compared to many oviraptororsaurs.  Each finger was armed with a curved claw.  We don't know why its arms and fingers were so short.  It may have been exhibiting a different feeding style that utilized its head and neck more, but it is almost impossible to predict exactly what that would have been.  Like all Oviraptorosaurs, it is almost certain Heyuannia had feathers in life. 

Photograph of a fossilized Heyuannia nest from the paper by Wiemann et. al. referenced below.  Note how the eggs are in a ring pattern and arranged in pairs.

Heyuannia is also known from many eggs and embryos which were found in the same place as many of the adult skeletons.  The nests of eggs are arranged in a ring pattern and don't appear to have been buried in life.  This implies that the parent would have guarded the nest with its body, likely with its feathered arms spread over the ring of eggs and their body in the middle of the ring.  (We have actual fossils of close relatives that died doing exactly this.) In addition the eggs are arranged in pairs, which implies they were laid two at a time.  This is notable since modern birds do not lay eggs in pairs because they only have one functioning oviduct, an adaptation to lighten their bodies for flight. Oviraptorosaurs, which did not fly, likely had both oviducts in use due to the way we find their eggs.

The most exciting thing about Heyuannia's eggs is the fact that scientists were able to examine the shells closely enough to identify the chemical makeup of some of them, specifically the part that reflects what color the shells would have been.  According to what they found, the eggs of Heyuannia would have been blue-green in color! 

References

Lü, J (2002). "A new oviraptorosaurid (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of southern China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (4): 871–875.

Lü, J. (2005). Oviraptorid dinosaurs from Southern China. Beijing: Geological Publishing House. ISBN 7-116-04368-3. 200 pages + 8 plates. (In Chinese: pp 1-83, including 36 figures & 3 tables. In English: pp 85-200, including 5 geological figures.)

Wiemann, J.; Yang, T.-R.; Sander, P.N.; Schneider, M.; Engeser, M.; Kath-Schorr, S.; Müller, C.E.; Sander, P.M. (2017). "Dinosaur origin of egg color: oviraptors laid blue-green eggs". PeerJ. 5: e3706.

Platyhystrix: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be talking about an unusual little amphibian that predates the dinosaurs by about 100 million years.  Check out Platyhystrix rugosus!

Platyhystrix was a kind of prehistoric amphibian that lived in what is now the United States, in Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas, during the early Permian period, about between 300 and 279 million years ago.  From snout to tail measured about 3 feet (1 meter) long.  Like most amphibians it was a predator, likely swallowing smaller animals whole.  The genus name translates from Greek to "Flat Porcupine" (which I find delightful) because of its unusual back ornamentation.  

Watercolor life reconstruction of Platyhystrix by Christopher DiPiazza.

Platyhystrix was a member of the extremely successful and widespread group of ancient amphibians, called the temnospondyls.  Temnospondyls are sadly extinct now, but they persisted from 300 to 120 million years ago. (210 million years total!)  Eryops, Mastodonsaurus, and Metoposaurus are three other examples from this group that have been covered on this blog in the past.  Unsurprisingly for a group that persisted so long, temnospondyls diversified into many different forms during their time on the planet, exhibiting some traits we don't normally associate with amphibians like frogs and salamanders.  One example of this is the presence of bony armor plates, a trait normally associated with reptiles, like crocodilians and dinosaurs.  Platyhystrix not only had this armor, but it evolved a version of it that is completely unlike that of any other animal armor that ever existed, forming a tall semi-circular crest on its back made up of a single row of flat plates growing from the midline attached to the spine.  At first glance this looks like the kind of sail-like structure that has evolved many times in other animals, including but not limited to, the synapsid, Dimetrodon, the dinosaurs, Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus, the pseudosuchian, Arizonasaurus, as well as many living lizards, like chameleons, basilisks, and sailfin dragons.  These sail structures are all made of extra long top sections of the vertebra, called neural arches.  Despite the resemblance, this is not the case for Platyhystrix, since its crest was made of bony plates that aren't actually part of its vertebrae, but appear to be their own separate body parts that were instead fused to the top of the spine.  The exact function of this structure is still very much a mystery.  Some suggest it had to do with thermoregulation, but others think it was more of a display structure for communication within the species. Maybe both?

Photo of the elongated armor plates of Platyhystrix from Vaughn's paper referenced below.

  The texture on the top of Platyhystrix's skull is rough with many grooves and pits in it, implying there was a tough keratin layer there in life.  This may have been an adaptation for combat within the species, possibly shoving or headbutting each other for dominance.  Modern amphibians, like frogs, can get extremely physical with each other, especially males around breeding time, so maybe Platyhystrix was similar in some ways?  It may also have had to do with controlling the animal's body temperature or maybe even defense against predators.  The teeth of Platyhystrix were small and cone-shaped, ideal for grabbing and holding onto prey that it could swallow whole.  

Illustration of the underside of Platyhystrix's (crushed) skull.  Note the small teeth at the top.  Image from paper by Berman referenced below.

Platyhystrix's environment would have been very different from what the American Southwest is today.  During the early Permian there would have been many rivers intersecting a landscape that would change between seasonally wet and humid to dry.  Despite being a predator, itself, when alive Platyhystrix would have needed to avoid predation from some of its larger contemporaries, including fellow temnospondyl, Eryops, and the large carnivorous synapsid, Dimetrodon.  

References

Berman DS, Reisz R, Fracasso MA. 1981. Skull of the Lower Permian dissorophid amphibian Platyhystrix rugosus. Annals of Carnegie Museum 50:391-416.

Bowler, Neven; Sumida, Stuart S.; Huttenlocker, Adam K. (2022-12-21). "Histological evidence for dermal-endochondral co-ossification of the dorsal blades in the late Paleozoic amphibian Platyhystrix rugosus (Temnospondyli: Dissorophidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 42 (2).

Case, E.C. (1910). "New or little known reptiles and amphibians from the Permian (?) of Texas". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 28: 163–181.

Mack, Greg H. (2003). "Lower Permian terrestrial Paleoclimatic indicators in New Mexico and their comparison to paleoclimate models". Geology of the Zuni Plateau. New Mexico Geological Society: 231–240.

Vaughn, Peter Paul (1971). "A Platyhystrix-like Amphibian with Fused Vertebrae, from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Ohio". Journal of Paleontology. 45 (3): 464–469.

Diplodocus: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be looking at an iconic dinosaur.  Make way for Diplodocus!

Perhaps one of the most widely known dinosaurs, Diplodocus was a sauropod that lived in what is now Western United States, most notably Colorado and Wyoming, during the Late Jurassic period, between 154 and 152 million years ago. Like all sauropods, it was a plant-eater, and like many sauropods, it was notably huge.  Diplodocus could grow to between 80 to 90 feet (about 24-27 meters) on average, but some specimens imply it could grow to even longer, exceeding 100 feet (30.4 meters) in some cases.  The genus name translates to "Double Beam" in reference to the upside-down "T" shaped projections growing from the underside of its vertebrae.  Currently two species of Diplodocus are recognized.  Diplodocus carnegii, which was described first, and Diplodocus hallorum, which appears to have been the larger of the two species.

Life reconstruction of Diplodocus (the big one) in watercolors by Christopher DiPiazza. 

Diplodocus is an important dinosaur because although it was not the first ever discovered sauropod dinosaur (that goes to Cetiosaurus, discovered in 1842 in England), it was the first sauropod discovered with enough bones to get a decent idea of what sauropods actually looked like, showing scientists just how bizarre these animals truly were.  No other kind land animal got close this large, let alone had these kinds of proportions.  You could argue giraffes come somewhat close with long necks, but theirs aren't nearly as proportioally long, nor do they have the insanely long, whiplike tails of many sauropods. 

Tail vertebra of Diplodocus on display at the Natural History Museum in London.  Note the upside down "T" projections on the underside of each bone.

 Diplodocus was a member of the more specific family of sauropods called the diplodocidae. (which is named after Diplodocus, itself.) Diplodocids are known for having more elongated faces than those of other sauropods, had peg-shaped teeth concentrated at the front of their jaws, and front limbs that were slightly shorter than their hind limbs.  The teeth were likely adaptations for stripping or clipping leaves off of trees.  The leg proportions means the dinosaur's center of gravity would have been around its hips, and therefore it could have probably stood up on its hind legs at least for short periods, maybe to display, scare predators, or reach higher leaves to eat.  

Probably the most notable trait of diplodocids, however, is their incredibly long, whiplike tails, which consisted of 80 vertebrae and could make up more than half the length of the entire animal's body.  The base of the tail was flexible and backed up by huge muscles, which would have allowed the dinosaur to move the end of this tail around extremely fast and with a lot of concentrated force.  Most experts suspect this would have been an effective weapon against potential predators.  Despite not having any spikes or other bony protrusions on its tail like many other kinds of dinosaurs had, since the tip of Diplodocus' tail could have hit so hard, it likely would have been able to seriously injure, and possibly lacerate the bodies of its enemies. 

Diplodocus skeleton on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

Like all sauropods, Diplodocus had an extremely long neck, made up of vertebra that had huge hollow spaces in them.  These were the attachment sites for air sacs which connected to the dinosaur's respiratory system, which allowed the huge body to be as light as possible as well as more effectively distribute oxygen throughout.  The neck bones also had bony ribs growing out of the bottom which overlapped.  In life these structures would have stiffened and therefore structurally strengthened the neck, making it easier for the dinosaur to keep its head up. 

In addition to huge adults, paleontologists have also uncovered bones from more than one small juvenile Diplodocus.  Experts think it is unlikely huge sauropods, like Diplodocus, cared for their eggs and young, but the skeletons of these small individuals, which were all found in the same area, suggest babies may have banded together for extended periods of time as they grew up.  At smaller sizes sauropods would have been extremely vulnerable to predators when young, so being part of a larger group, with more sets of senses alert for danger could have been a strategy to minimize the likelihood that each baby Diplodocus would be eaten by a predator.  (Fun trivia: During my time working and volunteering at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia I helped prep some of the bones from these Diplodocus specimens!)

These young Diplodocus remains also preserved skin impressions, showing us that these dinosaurs had scaly skin that varied in pattern and texture on different parts of the dinosaur's body.  This is not a surprise, since most modern reptiles exhibit this on their skin in various ways, but it's still extremely exciting to get confirmation of it for a dinosaur like Diplodocus, especially since preserved skin is so rare in fossils.  

Fossilized skin impression from young Diplodocus from Gallagher's paper referenced below.  Note how they vary in shape and form.  

When alive, Diplodocus would have shared its environment with many other dinosaurs, including fellow sauropods, Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Suuwassea.  Other plant-eating dinosaurs, like Stegosaurus, Gargoyleosaurus, and Camptosaurus were also present.  Predators that would have hunted young Diplodocus include Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Torvosaurus. 

References

Carpenter, Kenneth (2006). "Biggest of the big: a critical re-evaluation of the mega-sauropod Amphicoelias fragillimus". In Foster, John R.; Lucas, Spencer G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 131–138.

Foster, J.R. (2003). Paleoecological Analysis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain Region, U.S.A. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science:Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bulletin 23.

Gallagher, T; Poole, J; Schein, J (2021). "Evidence of integumentary scale diversity in the late Jurassic Sauropod Diplodocus sp. from the Mother's Day Quarry, Montana". PeerJ. 9: e11202. 

Holland WJ (1915). "Heads and Tails: a few notes relating to the structure of sauropod dinosaurs". Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 9 (3–4): 273–278.

Upchurch, P.; Barrett, P.M. (2000). "The evolution of sauropod feeding mechanism". In Sues, Hans Dieter (ed.). Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates. Cambridge University Press.

Wilson JA (2005). "Overview of Sauropod Phylogeny and Evolution". In Rogers KA, Wilson JA (eds.). The Sauropods:Evolution and Paleobiology. Indiana University Press. pp. 15–49.

Khaan: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be checking out a dinosaur that gave us insight into its behavior.  Make way for Khaan mckennai!

Khaan was a small birdlike dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia during the late Cretaceous period, between 75 and 71 million years ago.  From beak to tail it measured about four feet (1.2 meters) long and its name means "Lord" in Mongolian.  (Doesn't stop dinosaur nerds who are also Star Trek nerds making jokes about it, though.) When alive Khaan was likely an omnivore, eating seeds and plants, but also small animals.  

Watercolor reconstruction of a female and male Khaan mckenai.  There is actual fossil evidence that males of this species may have exhibited courtship dances. (read on)

Khaan was a member of the oviraptorid family, characterized by their overall very birdlike appearance, with long, slender legs and necks, long arms, tipped with hooked claws, and possessing feathers.  They also are known for having unusually blunt skulls with large eye sockets and very short, almost parrot-like beaks.  Many of them also had tall bony crests growing from the front of their faces.  Khaan was a particularly small example of this group, but many, like Citipati were about human-sized, and others, like Gigantoraptor were huge.  

Skull of Khaan on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Like all oviraptorids, Khaan had a short, tall beak, which many experts think was an adaptation for eating mostly plants when alive.  Others have suggested it was also eating small animals, and even using their seemingly specialized beak for cracking hard-shelled prey like shelled mollusks and crustaceans.  Khaan was actually part of a study that examined the jaws of several kinds of oviraptorids and compared them to those of other kinds of plant-eating theropods, like ornithomimosaurs and therizinosaurs.  This confirmed that for their size, oviraptorids had very powerful bites for their size, and may have been using their jaws for crunching through particularly tough plant material that other, weaker-jawed dinosaurs couldn't access.  

Skeletons of the two Khaan specimens that are thought by experts to represent a male and female.  They may have have even been a pair in life, since they were discovered together. Casts of these skeletons were on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for their temporary "Dinosaurs Among Us" exhibit.

Khaan tells us a lot about dinosaur behavior thanks to a few key details about its anatomy.  Two skeletons of Khaan that were adults when they died were discovered right next to each other.  Normally there would be no way to tell if these were the same or different sexes, except for the fact that one of them had slightly longer and differently-shaped tail chevrons (bony extensions on vertebrae) which implies there were more muscles there in life.  This means one of them was using its tail for something the other wasn't.  This had lead to a lot of experts to hypothesize that Khaan may have engaged in courtship dances, like many modern birds do today, like turkeys or grouse, with the males moving their their tails around (probably with feathers on the end) to entice potential partners.  

References

Clark, J. M.; Norell, M. A.; Barsbold, R. (2001). "Two new oviraptorids (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria), Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation, Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (2): 209.

Iv, W. S. P.; Funston, G. F.; Currie, P. J.; Norell, M. A. (2015). "A possible instance of sexual dimorphism in the tails of two oviraptorosaur dinosaurs". Scientific Reports. 5: 9472.

Meade, Luke E.; Ma, Waisum (22 February 2022). "Cranial muscle reconstructions quantify adaptation for high bite forces in Oviraptorosauria". Scientific Reports. 12 (1): 3010.

W. Scott Persons IV; Philip J. Currie; Mark A. Norell (2014). "Oviraptorosaur tail forms and functions". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 59 (3).