Episode 560: Riley Black Returns and a new Dino Duels Championship. Riley, one of our favorite dinosaur writers, returns to discuss her latest book and lots of other dinosaur topics. Plus a new ceratopsian—Ferenceratops. And a new Dino Duels Championship.

News:

• There’s a new ceratopsian dinosaur, Ferenceratops shqiperorum source
• Dinosaurs were “ecosystem engineers” that shaped their landscapes while they were alive—and after they died out source
• A study of New Mexican dinosaurs supports that they were still thriving before the Cretaceous-ending asteroid hit the Earth source
• Our dino duels are going again! Create your bracket here: bit.ly/dinoduelsbracket
  • Then enter your picks for a chance to win a year of Triceratops-level patreon membership at bit.ly/dinoduelspicks
  • Complete rules and restrictions at bit.ly/dinoduelsrules

Interview:

Riley Black, an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Nature, Smithsonian, and more. She has written a number of books, including “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs,” “When the Earth was Green,” and most recently “The Shortest History of the Dinosaurs”. Follow her on Bluesky @restingdinoface

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you by the Colorado Northwestern Community College. Join them for two weeks digging up dinosaur bones in the field, preparing fossils in their lab, or in their new field geology program. For details go to CNCC.edu/paleo26

The dinosaur of the day: Quaesitosaurus

• Titanosaur sauropod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Gobi Desert of Mongolia (Barun Goyot Formation)
• Type and only species is Quaesitosaurus orientalis
• Genus name means “extraordinary lizard”
• Species name means “of the east”
• Described in 1983 by Kurzanov and Bannikov
• Fossils found in 1971 during a Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition
• Found an incomplete skull and nearly complete lower jawbone (mandible)
• Estimated to be about 39 ft (12 m) long, based on its relatives
• As a titanosaur, would have walked on all fours, had a long neck that it held upright, and a long tail
• Had a long skull, with the nasal openings high on the skull, around the eye socket levels
• Had long, thin teeth (low and peg-like)
• Originally considered to be a dicraeosaur (includes dinosaurs like Amargasaurus, with the big neck spines), because Dicraeosaurus at the time was one of the only sauropods known with a preserved skull
• Original description of the skull found eight features that made it unique, but later studies found the skull was deformed
• Original paper described “the abnormally large cavity of the middle ear” and said that probably means it had sensitive hearing
• Also said it had a weak but broad jaw, with “little-worn teeth” so it likely ate large amounts of soft vegetation, that was probably in water
• Suggested it ate with its head partly in the water
• Also mention a “distinct system of impressions of blood vessels on the jaws”
• Mentioned Quaesitosaurus was likely amphibious
• Skull has been compared to Nemegtosaurus (both skulls were found isolated and are incomplete, and are from Mongolia from the Late Cretaceous)
• Quaesitosaurus is still considered valid, because of features like pits in certain parts of the skull
• Now considered to be closely related to Nemegtosaurus (it’s in the Nemegtosauridae family, and they are titanosaurs)
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, alvarezsaurs, raptors, lizards, and mammals

Fun Fact:

Night lizards survived the K-Pg mass extinction that killed all the non-avian dinosaurs, even though they didn’t have too many offspring at a time and they lived in a limited range.

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