Antarctic Dinosaurs

If you get a chance to see this traveling exhibit, do so! It was developed by the Field Museum in Chicago and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. It is currently in residence at the Natural History Museum of Utah.

 

The whole idea that dinosaurs once stomped around Antarctica sort of blows my mind. Of course, it was warmer in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, but it was still dark for three months of the year. This exhibit features discoveries from various Antarctic expeditions over the last century, with techniques, equipment, video footage, reconstructed critters, and mounted skeletons.

Okay, this doesn't look like much but it's a fossil tree, Glossopteris. The ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910-1913 carried 40 pounds of fossils along even as they were dying of exposure and starvation, because of the importance of these fossils. This tree was spread across Pangea and proves continental drift--Antarctica was once attached to South America, Africa, and Australia.

Reuniting Pangea

Kryostega skull

Posing with Antarctosuchus, a really big carnivorous amphibian (245 million years ago)

 

Smiling Antarctosuchus

Lystrosaurus, a proto-mammal that survived the end-Permian mass extinction

Cryolophosaurus (cryo = ice, lopho = crest, saurus = lizard) had a funny crest crosswise across its forehead. It's thought that they used it for species signaling to mates or rivals.

Cryolophosaurus

Me and my pal, Cryo

Cryolophosaurus lived in Antarctica ~190 million years ago. It wasn't as cold then, but still chilly and dark for three months of the year.

CT scan of the skull reveals the braincase and size/shape of brain regions.

"Sauropodomorph A" hasn't officially been named yet but was an early version of long-necked dinos.

Jumble of "Sauropodomorph A" bones that are too fragile to extract from the stone matrix, but they were CT scanned and then...

...3D printed from the CT scan to reconstruct the skeleton.

Fossil Teeth

Fossil Teeth

A big part of my "real" job as a veterinarian is dentistry, so I tend to be a little obsessed with teeth of extinct and extant species.

From the Natural History Museum of Utah

Mammuthus columbi, Columbian mammoth

Smilodon fatalis, the saber-tooth cat

Bison latifrons, Giant bison

Canis dirus, the dire wolf, a very good pupper

Paramylodon harlani, Giant sloth

Uintatherium

This is just the right front part of the maxilla of Arctodus, the giant short-faced bear. That canine tooth is 2-3 inches long. Unlike modern bears, these guys were built for running!

Top = Mammut americanum, American mastodon
Bottom = Mammuthus sp., mammoth
Interestingly, when people first found mastodon teeth, with the big crowns as opposed to the flat grinding surface of mammoth (and modern elephant) teeth, they thought mastodons were carnivores (and thought they were still alive). That's just what 2020 America needs--carnivorous elephants.

From the Museum of Ancient Life

Dimetrodon, my favorite not-a-dinosaur (they lived way before the dinosaurs, and were synapsids--proto-mammals)

Another smiling Smilodon

Basilosaurus, a proto-whale

Mammoth jaw

Bone Cancer in a Dinosaur

Centrosaurus with Osteosarcoma :(

A new report out documents osteosarcoma, a painful bone cancer, in a Centrosaurus specimen from Alberta (a four-legged horned herbivorous dinosaur related to Triceratops). Smithsonian article here.

Cool paleoart by @usikpaleoart on Twitter

Book shopping

Just as carbs consumed during quarantine don’t count, books purchased during quarantine don’t count! Here’s my latest stash, supporting three local indie bookstores.

Public Health

Hey, just a reminder. Veterinarians are trained in virology, immunology, and epidemiology. The promotion of public health is literally in our oath. Veterinarians have been fighting non-COVID coronaviruses for decades, such as Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). I have been studying and treating infectious diseases for 27 years. This IS my lane. Wear your mask and social distance, regardless of what the politicians say!

Volunteering in quarantine

NHMU is closed but digitization is a way to still volunteer (sitting on the couch with the dog, and wearing jammies)! Transcribing paleontology catalog notes from the early 1900's!

"Dinosaurs Rediscovered"

Currently reading. SCIENCE! Benton talks about the hard science behind recent paleontology discoveries. Like this cute dude on the cover, Sinosauropteryx. We KNOW he was orange with a fashionable orange-and-white stripey tail because of scanning electron microscope studies of pigment melanosomes in fossil feathers. Cool!