Prehistoric Animal of the Week: Plateosaurus

This week we're off to the Late Triassic to pump our fists in welcome for Plateosaurus!

Plateosaurus (sp.)

Plateosaurus, name meaning “broad lizard” is a prosauropod dinosaur that is related to other dinosaurs such as Barosaurus. Plateosaurus was from the Triassic period between 214 and 204 million years ago. Only two species are recognized for Plateosaurus, P engelhardti and P. gracilis. P. gracilis is from slightly older rocks. Plateosaurus was discovered in 1834 by Johann Friedrich Engelhardt and described, three years later, by Hermann von Meyer. Plateosaurus has the distinct honor of being the fifth dinosaur named after Richard Owen coined them term. It was unfortunately, due to scrappy remains, not considered to be within the group when it was first named. Plateosaurus is now actually one of the best known dinosaurs to science thanks to the fact that over a hundred skeletons have been found. Most of these finds have helped paint the picture for this animal.

Plateosaurus life restoration by Christopher DiPiazza

A bipedal herbivore, Plateosaurus had a small skull with a long mobile neck. It had teeth designed for crushing plants, powerful hind limbs, short and muscular arms, and hands that were good for grasping. The hands had large claws on three fingers. Plateosaurus could walk either as bipedal (on two legs) or quadrupedal (on all four's). It would have spend most of the time as a biped. Fully grown individuals ranged in sizes between 4.8 and 10 meters (16 and 33ft long) and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms (1,300 and 8,800 lbs). Expected lifespan was between 12 to 20 years, but the maximum life span is still relatively unknown.

References
Dixon, Dougal. The World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. London: Lorenz Books/Anness Publishing. 2010. Print.
Palmer, Dr. Douglas, et. al. Prehistoric Life. New York: DK Publishing. 2009. Print.
Paul, Gregory S. Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2010. Print.

Interview with Paleontologist: Dr. Heinrich Mallison

Hello again!  Sorry for the delay.  Speaking for myself there has been a lot of stuff going on with the holidays.  That's over now though so how about we kick off the new year with meeting another great paleontologist?

Dr. Heinrich Mallison is a vertebrate paleontologist and research assistant at the Museum
für Naturkunde- Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.  He mainly works with computer aided design and engineering modeling of dinosaurs.  In other words he studies the range of motion, posture, center of mass positions, and locomotion of dinosaurs with the help of modern technology.  I think we should hear what he has to say though.  On to the biography!

HM: Even as a small child I wanted to study „old stuff“. Archaeology, palaeontology – as long as there was a story to discover I was fascinated. And there had to be something to see, to touch, and not just a machine that goes „bing“ or some old texts to read – although I am an avid reader. Thus, my interests lie with experimental archaeology rather than book-history, palaeontology rather than microbiology or genetics. Additionally, animals and plants fascinate me – shapes and how they change through ontogeny (growth of an individual) and phylogeny (evolution through time). A short while I considered a career in ethology (the study of animal behaviour), but found the treatment of animals by humans too depressing. Thus, it was only logical to study either archaeology, palaeontology, or some aspect of biology.

When it was time for me to decide which subject to study at university, two things came together that decided matters for me: German reunification had triggered a new vogue, the excavation of medieval garbage dumps in the towns of the East, where practically no deep digging during construction had taken place and thus had left the garbage undisturbed. That’s not what I wanted to dig. And my parents sent me on a dinosaur dig, in the hope it would deter me from an unprofitable profession. That plan backfired spectacularly! I love being in the field, even if it meant the summer heat of Montana, I loved crawling around hillsides with my nose centimetres from the ground, looking for tiny fossils, and I even loved the repetitive and taxing task of sorting through screenwashed material to find tiny bones, teeth, eggshell fragments and so on. And I became even more fascinated with dinosaurs than before: our understanding of them had been revolutionised over the previous two decades, but continued to change rapidly. Thus, the remaining choice was between zoology and geology, as both subjects lead to vertebrate palaeontology.

However, my career was not straightforward at all. My diploma thesis dealt with fossil conifer cones, beautifully preserved in barite concretions from the Mainz Basin. Then, I worked on a doctorate project looking at the differences in skeletal proportions of psittacosaurs from China, and on the taphonomy (how did they become fossilized?), a project that fell apart when it became clear that most fossils in China were “improved” or “embellished”, if not outright fakes. Only after this did I turn to biomechanics and sauropodomorph dinosaurs, as a PhD student in the German Science Foundation’s Research Unit 533 ‘Sauropod Biology’. Led by Professor Martin Sander of Bonn University, this interdisciplinary group of researchers set out to investigate why sauropod dinosaurs were so huge – ten times larger than all other terrestrial animals. I have stayed a member of, and later associated with, the research group ever since, even while I am now pursuing only distantly related research subjects.

Question 1: Who did you admire growing up?

HM: Oh my, I have no memory at all! Certainly not any geeky science types, but in fact I was never really a fan of any one specific person. Never had any singer or football player poster up on my wall either.

determining air exchange volume. Top: dorsal vertebrae with axes of rotation of ribs indicated by green cylinders. note change of angle from front to back.

Question 2: At what age did you get inspired to pursue a career in paleontology?

HM: Hm, dunno – 3? 4? I always joke that there are two types of little boys. When they learn to stand and walk, half will point up and yell “Airpane! Airpane!” The other half bends down to pick up a nice pebble…. I just never got around to growing up, I guess.

Seriously, I do remember getting a present from my Dad at the shop of the Stuttgart zoo when I was barely old enough to read. Six years old I’d guess. A book on dinosaurs – no idea why I picked dinosaurs from the assorted books at a zoo shop, but there you go! I must have been tremendously interested back then already.

Question 3: What was your favorite dinosaur growing up?  What dinosaur is your favorite now?

HM: Brachiosaurus (rather, Giraffatitan as it should now be called), later Deinonychus. Today, I am still mostly a Saurischia fan, simply because most ornithischians are half-mammal in my eyes (no pneumatic foramina, can you believe it?), but any erect-limbed archosaur is fine by me. Oh, and then there is my personal, absolutely favorite guinea pig: Plateosaurus engelhardti von Meyer, 1837 from the Feuerletten of Bavaria and the Knollenmergel of Trossingen and… you get the drift I guess.

Plateosaurus life restoration by Christopher DiPiazza.  It was Dr. Mallison reviewed and approved for accuracy too!  (with a few small tweaks). 

Question 4: Paleontology is such a diverse field these days involving many disciplines.  What advice would you give to an aspiring paleontologist today?

HM: Don’t! At least don’t if you ever want to have a family. The competition for funding and jobs is so fierce and the outlook is so dire that you can never hope to provide a stable income.

If that doesn’t scare you away, the best advice is to make sure you get around. Nothing is as helpful as seeing things with your own eyes, touching them with your own hands.

Also, study geosciences, not biology, but make sure you can attend a shedload of biological courses, preferentially anatomy. Check out engineering, check out chemistry, check out physics! Yeah, physics – don’t get me started on how only 20% of people doing palaeo-biomechanics understand Newton.

Lastly, don’t set your eyes on one group of organisms and ignore everything else. The scarcity of jobs means that you may end up in paleobotany or whatever, and all paleontology is a captivating field. Similarly, don’t narrow the methods you use down to something that can leave you stranded. Broad knowledge and the ability to work in many fields – better, between them! – will be the best qualities you can bring.

Question 5: Going to college these days and then on to grad school has become a daunting task.  Many people are unaware of how long it takes to make it to the finish line.  The rewards are great, but what would you say to someone pursuing professional studies after college?

See above!

HM: Do get those stupid letters after (US, UK) or in front of (EU) your name! Many funding agencies make life very, very hard for someone who can’t call her- or himself  “Doctor”.

motion range analysis of the left forelimb.

Question 6: What was or is your favorite research project?  What are some of your current projects?

HM: Favorite – tough question. Doing the range of motion analysis of Plateosaurus, I guess. See my papers in APP and PE (links below). I am currently working on musculoskeletal computer models of sauropod limbs, comparing them to mammals. That’s pretty high up on my scale.

Question 7: Jurassic Park and Land Before Time (opposite ends of the spectrum I know) were the movies I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs.  What was your most memorable movie, book or TV program that inspired you with regards to paleontology?

HM: As I mentioned, there was this children’s book on dinosaurs. Aside from that I guess GEO magazine played a big role, as it was on GEO’s pages that I first encountered the Dinosaur Revolution. Jurassic Park was, surprisingly, a no-show for me. I didn’t see it in a theater, I saw it years later on the TV. In fact, my parents owned the last b&w TV in all of Germany, I guess, and it certainly didn’t see much use in the Mallison household. Dinosaurs on TV? Nah……..

SMNS F 33 from Trossingen, excllently preserved articulated skeleton of Plateosaurus. unusually, the anterior body is not rotated to the side, but crushed dorsoventrally.

Question 8: I remember meeting my first professional paleontologist.  Do you remember the first paleontologist you ever met?  Were you a nervous wreck? 

HM: <draws a total blank> I guess the first time I consciously met a paleontologist was my first lecture on exogene dynamics. Prof. Luterbacher managed to make me fall asleep in about 15 seconds (which, I guess, was his aim; he hated lecturing to first semesters. Today I agree with him).

Question 9: Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures.  Why do you feel they continue to fascinate us?

HM: I can’t really speak for the vast majority of lay people. For me, they are into dinosaurs for all the wrong reasons. To me, what’s really cool is that dinosaurs paralleled so much of the evolution of mammals – but most of the way they were ahead in time and in performance. An avian lung beats the living hell out of a mammalian one, for example.

Plateosaurus mounts in the Tübingen Institute for Geoscinces. Left is "GPIT skeleton 2", right is GPIT/RE/7288, my guinea pig, both from Trossingen

Question 10: What is your favorite time period?

HM: Next week – the current development in digital methods makes paleontology so much more fun that I can barely wait for next week (this is true every week).

Thank you Dr. Mallison!  Interested in asking him your own question(s)?  Well as a matter of fact you are in great luck!  Dr. Mallison is one of the many friendly scientists ready to answer inquiries from the public on one of my favorite websites, Ask a Biologist or just comment at his blog.

"Ask Me About My T-Rex"- Whats in a name?

I keep seeing this shirt all over the internet although I have yet to see any hipsters in person actually wearing it.  Its pretty funny check it out.  There are a few other versions of it out there like a zombie one and even a weeping angel from Doctor Who! 

Cool shirt.  But the nit-picking nerd in me has two problems with this.  First off is the model's hands.  I have mentioned before theropods like Tyrannosaurus couldn't bend their wrists that way!  So if anyone reading this buys this shirt you now have no excuse for improper wrist posture! 

Second is their use of the term "T-rex".  "T-rex" is wrong.  The proper term is T. rex.  The full term, Tyrannosaurus rex is actually the full  two-part scientific name of the animal.  Tyrannosaurus is the genus and rex is the species.  Just like Canis familiaris is for a dog.  All known organisms have a two part scientific name.  Extinct animals rarely are given common names unlike most modern animals (dog, tiger, human...).  It just makes it easier to say the scientific name since its the same word all over the world, regardless of what language you speak.  For most dinosaurs, we just say their genus when talking casually.  Triceratops, for instance is actually Triceratops horridus or Triceratops prorsus (there are two species) when said fully.  For some reason Tyrannosaurus' species name is cool sounding (Go ahead say it out loud...rex.  Yeah its totally cool.) so we tend to say it fully for fun.  A lot of people have no clue what it really is that they are saying though.

So where did the term "T-rex" come from?  Often times, especially when writing a scientific paper, it can become tiresome to write a full genus and species name over and over again.  To deal with this, we can simply put the first letter of the genus (in this case T) with a period and then the species name for an abbreviated version. When applied this gives us T. rex.  Oh and in case you were wondering, scientific names should always be in italics.

So why do we always see T-rex and not T.rex?  Honestly I don't know.  Apparently somewhere along the line somebody decided that dashes were cooler than periods and therefore messed up everyone's writing of the most famous dinosaur of all time.  Yay for pop culture! 

The shirt itself can be bought here.  If you have this shirt (or any other dinosaur-theme apparel) take a photo of yourself wearing it and put it up on our facebook page! 

Interview with Paleontologist: Dr. Adam Stuart Smith

Dr. Adam S. Smith is a palaeontologist and curator at the Nottingham Natural History Museum, UK. He specializes in plesiosaurs and other fossil marine reptiles from the Mesozoic Era and has co-named two new plesiosaurs: Meyerasaurus and Lusonectes. He runs several palaeontology websites: 'The Plesiosaur Directory' (http://www.plesiosauria.com), which all about plesiosaurs; and The Dinosaur Toy Blog (http://www.dinotoyblog.com), which is all about prehistoric animal models.  I have had the pleasure of being friends with Dr. Smith for a few years now and was very excited when he agreed to be interviewed for Jersey Boys Hunt Dinosaurs!



Question 1:
You are one of my heroes in the field of paleontology.  Who did you admire growing up?

AS: The vertebrate palaeontologist I was most aware of growing up was Professor Michael Benton. I read a lot of his books. So, when I went to the University of Bristol to study palaeobiology it was great to finally meet him, and even better that he was my supervisor during my Masters project on plesiosaurs.

Question 2:
At what age did you get inspired to pursue a career in paleontology?

AS: From a very early age, I always wanted to be a palaeontologist and always had my head in a dinosaur book.

Question 3:
What was your favorite dinosaur (or other prehistoric creature) growing up?  What dinosaur is your favorite now?

AS: My favourite dinosaur growing up was the scaly old version of Deinonychus. Today - I don’t know - there are so many more to choose from! I have a favourite plesiosaur though: Attenborosaurus.

Dr. Smith working on making a cast model of Attenborosaurus, a plesiosaur named in honor of naturalist, David Attenborough.

Question 4:
Paleontology is such a diverse field these days involving many disciplines.  What advice would you give to an aspiring paleontologist today?

AS: On one hand, play to your strengths. Some people are better at maths, or drawing, or spotting fossils in the field, or something else. That’s what makes you stand out in the crowd, and it is probably what you enjoy most, so harness and develop those skills. On the other hand, it is vital to get as broad an education as possible. As happened with the dinosaurs, if you become too specialised you risk becoming extinct, so a balanced set of skills and knowledge is important. 

Question 5:
Going to college these days and then on to grad school has become a daunting task.  Many people are unaware of how long it takes to make it to the finish line.  The rewards are great, but what would you say to someone pursuing professional studies after college?

AS: It completely depends on the person: what are their motivations, their aspirations, what do they want to achieve? Going to university doesn’t guarantee a job in this ever-competitive world, so depending on what field you want to go into, it may be necessary to do voluntary work to gain experience that university courses can’t provide. For example, I got my first work experience by volunteering in museums and helping at education events. This was a necessary first step for me to get on the employment ladder.

Question 6:
What was or is your favorite research project?  What are some of your current projects?

AS: I don’t know if I have a favourite research project, I don’t think about my research in that way. I suppose I have fondest memories of my PhD research on rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs as I traveled around a lot to different museums collecting data. I have a few current research projects. For example, I’m working on a fantastic pliosaur specimen from Lyme Regis, which I think is a new species.

Illustration of a Rhomaleosaurid skeleton.

Question 7:
Jurassic Park and Land Before Time (opposite ends of the spectrum I know) were the movies I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs.  What was your most memorable movie, book or TV program that inspired you with regards to peleontology?

AS: It was Jurassic Park as well. It was released when I was 13, perfect timing for a young teenager with a passion for dinosaurs. I’m sure I would have pursued a career in palaeontology anyway, but Jurassic Park surely put some fuel on the fire.

Question 8:
I remember meeting my first professional paleontologist.  Do you remember the first paleontologist you ever met?  Were you a nervous wreck? 

AS: I think the first vertebrate palaeontologist I ever met was Dr David Martill who I met when I first went to university. Dave was an advisor for the BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs and I recall being rather impressed by that!

Question 9:
Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures.  Why do you feel they continue to fascinate us?

AS: Prehistoric animals are so weird and wonderful and the world they lived in is so far away. But it all happened right here and that allows the imagination to run wild. Dinosaurs are the closest thing we have to real monsters. They are frightening, fantastic, mysterious, but most importantly, real. Why are people fascinated by towering animals that could swallow you whole? The answer is in the question!

Question 10:
What is your favorite time period?

The Jurassic. When plesiosaurs first came on the scene.

Plesiosaur, Elasmosaurus illustration by Dr. Adam Stuart Smith.

Question 11:
The time span in which the dinosaurs lived in was huge.  How do paleontologists remember all that information from such a vast era?  Do paleontologist focus on one particular subject?

AS: Palaeontologists do tend to specialize on particular groups of organisms or specific fields of research, but it is important to have an understanding of the bigger picture to put the various topics into a greater context. As for remembering all that information, we don’t always. I’m constantly forgetting things. That’s why we have notebooks and why it’s important for palaeontologists to publish our findings - I frequently consult my own articles!

Thank you Dr. Smith!  For anyone who is interested here and here are his websites again.  Join me next week for another post!

Dinosaur Feathers: First North American Find

Its no secret that certain dinosaurs had feathers at this point.  This is largely due to the abundant fossils from places like China and a few from Europe that clearly show evidence of plumage on beautifully preserved theropod skeletons.  In 2008, however, the first ever dinosaurs from North America were discovered with actual feathers.

Fossil feathers from one of the Ornithomimus specimens at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada

 The dinosaur is not a newly discovered species, its called Ornithomimus and was a very close relative to Struthiomimus which has been talked about previously on this site.  Two adults and one juvenile were found, all three possessing evidence of plumage.  The younger animal has what appears to be fluffy down-type feathers like modern juvenile birds and the adults had quill knobs, like those found on Velociraptor skeletons, proving that it would have had large, wing-type feathers on its arms. Whats interesting is that veined, wing feathers are usually implications of flight, looking at modern birds.  Ornithomimus clearly wasn't much of a flyer, however.  It would have been too large and heavy.  This discovery suggests that perhaps these feathers were originally evolved for something like sexual display or brooding (also observable in modern birds) and later were adapted for flight in certain kinds of animals (not Ornithomimids).

It has been assumed for a while now that Ornithomimids (family of dinosaurs Ornithomimus belongs to) had feathers.  Its only logical to think this way since every other type of dinosaur surrounding them on the theropod family tree (Tyrannosauroids, Oviraptorids, Dromaeosaurids, Therizinosaurids, Compsognathids, birds...) has at least one specimen on the fossil record that clearly shows feathers in some form or another.  Ornithomimids were the only ones that didn't...until now.  The icing on the cake is that its in North America too!  On that note I also should mention this discovery also kills any misconceptions that some people may have had thinking only feathered dinosaurs came from places like China.  In reality feathered dinosaurs were all over the world, many of them already discovered in the form of skeletons and bones where the feathers didn't preserve like Deinonychus, for instance.  Fossilization is rare to begin with let alone preservation of soft tissue! 

Struthiomimus I painted earlier this year with incorrect featherless arms.

Luckily I was able to correct it!

Works Cited

 Hartman, Scott. "Skeletal Drawing: Ornithomimus Had Wings...as an Adult." Skeletal Drawing: Ornithomimus Had Wings...as an Adult. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://skeletaldrawing.blogspot.ca/2012/10/ornithomimus-had-wingsas-adult.html>.

"Dinosaurs May Have Evolved Feathers for Courtship." NewScientist- Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22428-dinosaurs-may-have-evolved-feathers-for-courtship.html>.

Shoprite Toy Section: The Good Stuff

So I was grocery shopping the other day and happened to pass the toy section.  The toy sections in grocery stores are small but usually contain a variety of different things.  A common theme for toys is, no surprise, dinosaurs.  Most little kids had a dinosaur phase (some of us don't grow out of it).  A puzzle designed for toddlers happened to catch my eye that day because it was of dinosaurs (shocker).  It had four typical cartoon-style dinosaurs, with bright colors and each dinosaur was labelled.  To my surprise they were actually correctly labelled! 

The Apatosaurus was called an Apatosaurus, not Brontosaurus!  The theropod I was almost sure would be labelled as Tyrannosaurus or worse, T-rex(gasp!) despite the three fingers but alas, it was labelled Allosaurus!  Even the pterosaur, which is is 99.9% of the time mislabeled as Pterodactyl (an actual genus of animal but not usually what people picture) on toys like this was actually referred to as a pterosaur!  The cartoon creature they have on the puzzle looks like its supposed to be Pteranodon, a kind of pterosaur, so they are safe.  Good job, grocery store discount toddler puzzle!  You have the Jersey Boy Hunts Dinosaurs stamp of approval! 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Pachy goes Pink

Earlier this week fellow Jersey Boy, Gary, called me up to share with me an idea he had for the blog.  He suggested I paint a pink dinosaur in honor of breast cancer awareness month (October...now).  I have seen other paleo-artists do this in the past and always liked their work so I was immediately on board with the idea.  Here she is, the pink, breast cancer awareness Pachycephalosaurus!

 
If you would like to donate to help fund breast cancer research (not just awareness, actual research for a cure.) you can do so right here.