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Let Me Know Next Time

February 15, 2015, 1:27 pm
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Apparently, for some reason, I decided to do today's normal topic of entry yesterday. I think it has honestly just been a very long weekend. I read a lot yesterday and apparently thought it was Sunday a day early. Therefore, let us talk about this image today where we should have yesterday:
The typical description of Aegyptosaurus is that of "a close relative of Argentinosaurus." This is not very descriptive except that there is a somewhat understood identity revealed in that statement that identifies Aegyptosaurus as a large sauropod. Argentinosaurus is, of course, a rather gigantic titanosaur and Aegyptosaurus is also considered to be a titanosaurid, though somewhat smaller than Argentinosaurus. No exact size estimate is reliably available to us these days, but as a titanosaur it Aegyptosaurus was most likely very large. This image of this rather large dinosaur allows us to infer that very few predators probably hunted these animals. The only likely dinosaur in northern Africa at the time of Aegytposaurus' reign was most likely the enormous predator Carcharodontosaurus. Hopefully that will help in giving a size estimate to the adult Aegyptosaurus.
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Losing the Paper

February 16, 2015, 8:04 pm
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Stromer's fossils were lost during World War II. His papers describing the fossils are not lost, but are conspicuously absent from the internet as a whole (as far as I can tell). The descriptions have been evoked many times over, including descriptions of species discovered in Mangrove swamps in northern Africa. The species in particular in the above link is an earlier described dinosaur here, Paralititan. Morphometrics have also used Aegyptosaurus to describe titanosaurs in general. It makes for a very technical, but interesting paper. I'm sharing this today because there is no video for movie Monday. Tomorrow I will make up for moving things ahead a day!
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What The Fossils Looked Like

February 17, 2015, 6:02 pm
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©Henken Fossils
A company called Henken fossils touts the cast pictured here as an Aegyptosaurus vertebra. As stated previously, there is not, to my knowledge, known remains of the specimens that Ernst Stromer recovered from the rock formations of Egypt and northern Africa. I have to additionally state that I have not seen any images of Aegyptosaurus fossils in all of my searches this week while looking for information on the dinosaur. The idea that the vertebra pictured here might be from Aegyptosaurus may indeed be a little unrealistic given the lack of information and images that are archived online, but that is not to say that it is not similar to what we would expect for sauropod vertebrae. The size may be similar to what would be expected for a sauropod of that size as well, though we could possibly say that it may not be the full size adult titanosaur, there may well not be any knowing for sure, lest more fossils of Aegyptosaurus are discovered, recovered, and studied against the descriptions of Stromer. Assuming, or perhaps hoping against hope, that some day there are some new fossils discovered, we may be able to answer that question for certain and to put to rest the story of Stromer and open a new history of the titanosaur and our understanding of its habitat, life history, and morphology. We may learn a lot about it, but we will definitely have to wait until a new series of fossils is discovered, and we do not know when that will happen!
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Typing Searches

February 18, 2015, 5:58 pm
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Typing in searches is sometimes a very fun and rewarding time on the internet. Due to the fact that I altered this week's entries a little bit earlier this week I ended up with a lot of rather empty moments in which to look for information and images to share about Aegyptosaurus. It could take a seriously long time to run down all of the links, images, short videos, and other bits that people will title or call a given dinosaur. I found homemade claymation videos, April Fool's Day articles and a lot of other things that one would not expect when I typed in Aegyptosaurus. Just for fun though, I encourage everyone to look at the artwork that depicts, or at least is titled, Aegyptosaurus on DeviantArt. Sometimes the artwork on there can be a little iffy, but I promise at least the first page of the search I ran tonite is pretty darn good. There's a really neat swimming Aegyptosaurus and a spotted cow-like variant. It's all good fun and taking a moment to appreciate art is always worth our time!
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Wikinope

February 19, 2015, 4:16 pm
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Someone edited the Wikipedia entry for Aegyptosaurus in a way that Spinosaurus is listed as a probably predator of the estimated 11 tonne sauropod. It may be better noted that Spinosaurus may have scavenged from the dinosaur's carcass, but killing a healthy Aegyptosaurus was most likely not within the anatomical abilities of Spinosaurus, despite its rather large size. Regardless, we know that a highly probable predator of Aegyptosaurus was Carcharodontosaurus. The size of Aegyptosaurus was most likely a defense, but not a perfect defense.

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Gas Lizards

February 20, 2015, 8:16 pm
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Chinese dinosaurs are very popular these days. The larger predators are usually well known, but one has escaped the public fascination for the majority of its known existence. That dinosaur is a small carnosaur known as Gasosaurus constructus. Recovered in the Sichuan province, Gasosaurus was a small mid-Jurassic carnivore similar to Ceratosaurus in its placement in the food chain and general environment. Like its North American cousins Gasosaurus hunted thyreophorans (Stegosaurs) of China. Despite its serious weaponry, Gasosaurus, or maybe more the humans studying it, was the subject of a hoax in 2014 that we will most definitely discuss in this coming week.

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Running on A Full Tank

February 21, 2015, 5:26 pm
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©Mineo Shiraishi
Mineo Shiraishi's Gasosurus is an agile beast. The viewpoint of the skull creates an angle of depth that makes the face of the active carnivore appear to quite smug, perhaps even happy, that it is running. We know, and it was stated previously yesterday, that Gasosaurus was a smaller carnosaur that many of the later predators of China could have towered over. Running around with the hardware in its mouth Gasosaurus could have easily chased down and eaten the silhouetted man that it just ran past. Appreciation of the mid-sized predators of the mid-Jurassic like Gasosaurus is not difficult when you can see its beauty in action like this.
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Pages of Facts

February 22, 2015, 1:40 pm
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Gasosaurus, being one of those interesting mid-sized Chinese dinosaurs, has a middling amount of popularity amongst the general masses. The normal sources of easily found information apply for Gasosaurus, as we would expect. These include About and the NHM of London. The information has been circulating since the naming of Gasosaurus constructus in 1985, so there are also smaller and more dinosaur-specific sites in existence that  can be read online. These extra sites include the Dinosaur Wiki and Raresource. Raresource this week is less informative than it was for Aegyptosaurus.
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Two Movies

February 23, 2015, 5:54 pm
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I do not want to say much of anything today. I am just going to let Dinosaurs Alive and the hatching hoax do the talking.

Dinosaurs Alive Gasosaurus:

Hatching hoax from Germany's Natural History Museum. The video is mostly the story of the hoax, but you can see a still from the hoax:

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Company Naming Policies

February 24, 2015, 5:41 pm
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Dong and Tang 1985 named Gasosaurus. The name (Gasosaurus constructus) referred to the fact that a gasoline company discovered the quarry. The paper that named and described Gasosaurus was published in a Chinese journal in 1985 and finding the name of the actual gasoline company is apparently near impossible because of this. After much searching, though, the original paper can be found. I was fairly excited about actually finding it. Until, after I opened the English site, I was greeted with an article that is entirely Chinese (my Chinese is not good enough to translate). That is until I scrolled down and was exhilarated to see that the abstract at least is translated! Regardless of how mundane a description article may be, reading the original description of any animal, especially a fairly exciting mid-size carnosaur, is something I enjoy. I hope it is a good read, short as it is, for everyone else as well. If any of our Chinese readers are feeling a bit crazy, they could translate the article and gain our greatest appreciation.
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Basal Trees

February 25, 2015, 6:10 pm
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Gasosaurus has been defined as many things since its initial description. The carnosaur has been considered a basal coelurosausian by some. In fact, it has been mentioned as being potentially the basal most of all coelurosaurians. All of the changes concerning the position of Gasosaurus has even claimed the same authors as they changed their proposed nodes on the trees. As an example, Holtz 2000 and Holtz et al. 2004 changed its position from basal coelurosaurian to basal carnosaur (respectively). As a basal member of either defined tree Gasosaurus rests at the base of the tetanuran lineage as well. Despite being a basal dinosaur, Gasosaurus was still an effective mid-sized predator, as we can see as it chases down an Agilisaurus in the Zigong Museum in China.

References:
Holtz, 2000. A new phylogeny of the carnivorous dinosaurs. Gaia. 15, 5-61.
Holtz TR Jr, Molnar RE, Currie PJ. 2004. Basal Tetanurae. In: Weishampel DB, Dodson P, Osmólska H, eds. The dinosauria, 2nd edn. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 71–110.
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Writing A Book

February 26, 2015, 5:14 pm
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Gasosaurus does not have any wonderful toys or fantastic movies featuring it. However, it is mentioned in a small book or two and has appeared as an animatronic dinosaur in the Dinosaurs Alive exhibits that travel around not and again. Mentions of the dinosaur appear in many short books or at least in many short paragraphs in longer books. The hatching hoax probably acquainted even more people with Gasosaurus that would not have otherwise known about the dinosaur, which is also important of course.
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Bifurcated Heads

February 27, 2015, 8:32 pm
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©Dmitry Bogdanov
Dicraeosaurus hansemanni was named as the type of the genus in 1914 by Werner Janensch. The small diplodocid comes from Tanzania, like many other German sauropods from the early 20th century. The short wide body of the Late Jurassic was unique in a number of ways. The most obvious, looking at its head, is the feature that gave the dinosaur its name. Janensch and others, even us, could clearly see the bifurcated nasal passage that is shown here arching down the front of the face. The skull itself possessed two large fenestrae at the apex of the skull where the nares allowed air to enter the cranium. The soft tissue, represented here as tubular nostrils, is unknown, but this is an interesting interpretation. As for other interesting features, the tall neural spines of the vertebrae, the peg-like teeth (that are shown in this image in a wonderful looking overbite), and its short and wide neck and body are all very interesting aspects of the anatomy that can be seen in the skeletal remains that have been recovered.
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Littlefoot

February 28, 2015, 9:17 pm
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©Nobu Tamura
When placed alongside similarly small wide-bodied sauropods Dicraeosaurus is actually a rather large dinosaur. Size is always relative, of course, but Dicraeosaurus is a smaller sauropod as far as sauropods are concerned despite appearing to be significantly larger than the other small sauropods pictured with it here. Even considered a small dinosaur it is still enormous compared to a human being. Regardless of body size, as with all sauropods the head of Dicraeosaurus is fairly small relative to the body and neck of the dinosaur.
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Trunks and Facts

March 1, 2015, 7:34 am
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Trunked dicraeosaurid, illustrated in 1975 by Gregory Irons for the 1990 book All New Dinosaurs and Their Friends. Retrieved from Tetrapod Zoology.
Dicraeosaurus may or may not have had a trunk, but the image here makes for a great coloring sheet. It goes well with the fact pages that are hosted on About and KidsDinos. There are other sites as well, but today is a very snowy day and I have to do a lot of shoveling and reshoveling, and I am pooped at the moment. I suggest we all just enjoy some hot chocolate and color a picture before I have to go out to shovel once more.
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Video Storage

March 2, 2015, 5:52 pm
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Apparently the videos featuring Dicraeosaurus are almost all streams of stock photos of artwork that also features Dicraeosaurus. There is a short video that shows a small sculpture of Dicraeosaurus that is fairly interesting, though not exciting.
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German Dreadnought

March 3, 2015, 4:43 pm
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As small as Dicraeosaurus is in relation to other sauropods the original literature by Walter Janensch is enormous. Mike Taylor keeps Janensch's publication hosted on his website in the original German. I have not been able to read the text in its entirety as yet, mainly because I do not read German well or fast. Either way, it is a great piece of original literature to add to any collection. That is not the only research that has been conducted with Dicraeosaurus of course. In more recent times pneumaticity and feeding mechanisms have both been researched in this moderately sized African/Gondwanan sauropod.
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Paleontology and Ecology

March 4, 2015, 5:47 pm
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Dicraeosaurus in the Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin
The bridged study of paleontology and ecology, paleoecology of course, allows us to look at how dinosaurs like Dicraeosaurus lived in and around its surroundings. One of the most interesting things about it, in my opinion, is knowing that Dicraeosaurus was possibly the tallest dinosaur in its habitat. Fossils from the geological formation (the Tendaguru of Tanzania) where the majority of Dicraeosaurus remains have been recovered are typically of much shorter stature. Giraffatitan and Kentrosaurus populated the countryside with Giraffatitan growing to a much larger size than Dicraeosaurus in terms of height.
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African Dinosaurs Are Well Known

March 5, 2015, 2:58 pm
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Dicraeosaurus is as famous as any other African dinosaur, even if it does not feature in documentaries and movies and all kinds of other places that other African dinosaurs do. Dicraeosaurus should be a lot more popular than it is though given its unique cranial anatomy. Toys could abound with the diversely illustrated nostril arrangements that have been portrayed, especially the rather interesting trunk and bifurcated nares versions. We saw, on Monday, a small sculpture that was well done. That is the limit of the toy department though unfortunately. The strongest popular culture references concerning Dicraeosaurus is in the realm of illustration. There is a German language version of a Dinosaur King card so it does appear that the dinosaur has made an impact outside of artwork and paleontology proper. Probably one of the best interpretations of Dicraeosaurus' size and role in its habitat was illustrated by Sergey Krasovskiy.
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Marsh's Dinosaur

March 6, 2015, 9:05 am
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©Danny Ciccheti
Marshosaurus bicentesimus was namd and described in 1976 (its specific epithet referring to the American bicentennial). Casts and replicas of its skull are in museums throughout the country and its genus is named after one of the most prolific paleontologists in American history. Why, then, is it a dinosaur that few have heard of? Possibly it is due to the fact that this is another Late Jurassic Rocky Mountain carnivore that blends into the backgrounds of its contemporaries (Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus specifically). It could also be due to the fact that the dinosaur looks like a dinosaur. It does not have spectacular frills and horns and cranial protuberances, unless you count the large teeth. Marshosaurus was not larger than Allosaurus or any other carnivore of the time. The stand out characters of Marshosaurus are that it does not truly stand out, except that it is a Megalosauroid in North America; most Megalosauroids are Palearcitc/Afrotropic in origin.

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