Episode art of the frugivore Infernogallus jamesi by Joel Lee joelleeart.com

Episode 578: Infernogallus, the new fruit-eating dinosaur. New dinosaur hot spots all around the world, including Diplodocus in Europe and a new amazing museum in the Gobi desert.

News:

• There’s a new fruit-eating dinosaur, Infernogallus jamesi source
• Dinosaurs have been found for the first time in a new part of China—the Bayan Gobi Formation in western Inner Mongolia source
• There’s a new museum in the Gobi Desert featuring sand pumps and huge light funnels source
• Diplodocus lived on two continents: what’s now North America and Europe source
• After a mass extinction, there’s often a burst of new species that appear, and then over time, many gradually go extinct source

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The dinosaur of the day: Parksosaurus

• Neornithischian that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada (Horseshoe Canyon Formation, used to be known as the Edmonton Formation)
• Herbivorous, had a beak
• Small to medium-sized neornithischian
• About 8.2 ft (2.5 m) long
• Likely not skeletally mature, based on some lack of fusion in the bones
• Small and fast
• Walked on two legs, had a small head, somewhat long neck, and long tail
• Had robust shoulders
• Had short, strong arms
• Had long, powerful legs
• Had long toes that ended in claws
• Fossils found in 1922
• Type species is Parksosaurus warreni
• Genus name means “Park’s lizard”
• Species name after Mrs. H.D. Warren, a Royal Ontario Museum board of trustees member
• Named from a mostly complete skeleton and partial skull
• Skeleton was lying on its left side, parts of the right body scattered, in extremely hard rock (a white sandstone concretion)
• Skull found separated from the rest of the skeleton in the rock (about 12 inches or 30 cm away)
• Skull flattened during fossilization
• Fossils include back bones, hip bones, 42 tail bones, parts of the shoulder, the left arm (but no hand), and both complete legs
• Originally named as a new species of Thescelosaurus
• Gilmore described Thescelosaurus neglectus in 1913, based on a fossil found in Wyoming
• Parks named Thescelosaurus warreni in 1926, based on fossils from Alberta
• Parks reported a nearly complete skeleton, and incomplete skull
• Only described the left side of the skull
• Skull was crushed and distorted
• Sternberg gave it the name Parksosaurus in 1937
• Peter Galton redescribed the skull and jaws in 1973
• Hans Sues and a team redescribed the skeleton in 2023
• Know Parksosaurus from a skull, associated skeleton, and a referred isolated tooth, all found in Alberta, Canada (Horseshoe Formation)
• Possible two trackways and two isolated tracks in Alberta are from Parksosaurus, but no way to know for sure
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include ankylosaurs like Anodontosaurus, hadrosaurs like Saurolophus, ceratopsians like Montanoceratops, pachycephalosaurs like Sphaerotholus, alvarezsaurs like Albertonykus, and caenagnathids like Epichirostenotes
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include mammals, plesiosaurs, turtles, alligatorids, and fish

Fun Fact:

A new discovery in Tanzania changes the timeline for the earliest dinosaurs. source

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