Episode 566: Steve Brusatte and the Story of Birds. Steve Brusatte joins to discuss the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid. Plus a new alvarezsauroid which is the most complete and smallest dinosaur ever found in South America.

News:

• There’s a new alvarezsauroid, Alnashetri, which has set a record as the most complete dinosaur found in South America source

Interview:

Interview with Steve Brusatte, a professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh. He is also the paleontology advisor for Jurassic World and author of a numerous of best-selling paleontology books. His latest book is The Story of Birds (which is already a NYT Best Seller)

The dinosaur of the day: Tataouinea

• Rebbachisaurid sauropod that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Tunisia
• Rebbachisaurids known for their distinct teeth, which asymmetrical enamel
• They are diplodocids, known for their long tails
• As a rebbachisaurid, had a long neck and long tail, and walked on all fours
• Holotype includes parts of the hip and tail bones
• Estimated to be at least 14 m (46 ft) long, although the exact size is not known
• Size estimated based on comparing the bones to other diplodocoid specimens
• Based on fused bones and its large size, considered to be fully grown
• Type and only species is Tataouinea hannibalis
• Name is not related to Star Wars
• Name refers to the Tataouine governorate of Tunisia (one of the governorates, or provinces)
• Species name in honor of Hannibal Barca, a.k.a. Hannibal the Great, “Carthaginian military commander who marched an army including war elephants across Southern Europe” who lived from 247 until 183 BC
• Fossils first found in 2011, and excavated in 2012
• Some of the fossils were damaged after they were first excavated (they were transported to the capital, Tunis, and there was an unstable political situation)
• Managed to restore a lot of it, though more than 200 fragments in the hips and tail couldn’t be preserved
• Found the rest of the tail, fully articulated, in 2015
• Named in 2013 by Federico Fanti and others
• First articulated dinosaur skeleton from Tunisia, and one of the best preserved in northern Africa
• Had very pneumatic bones (air sacs, to make them lighter)
• Helps show sauropods had bird-like respiratory systems
• See evidence of air sacs, and where they were was bird-like (in the shoulder bones and in the hips, as well as the tail)
• Closely related to Nigersaurus
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include carcharodontosaurs, spinosaurs, sauropods, iguanodonts, pterosaurs, crocodilians, and fish, including sharks

Fun Fact:

Scientists have updated a powerful calculator that will help researchers figure out how different species weathered mass extinctions. source

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