A new titanosaur from Kenya, footprints on Tyrants Aisle, and teaching evolution through paleoart

Dinosaur of the day Coloradisaurus, a Triassic sauropodomorph known from a nearly complete skull that was found in Argentina.

Interview with Taissa Rodrigues, from the Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo in Brazil. She presented a poster at SVP about teaching evolution using paleoart. She also led a session on women in paleontology and had a student present a poster on a pterosaur. Follow her on twitter @paleotaissa

Presentations from the first day of SVP:

• New dating shows Lythronax argestes is older than previously thought, no longer coinciding with a global sea-level drop
• There are tons of new sauropod fossil fields in southwest Queensland, Australia, near Eromanga
• Probable ornithopod, ceratopsid, deinonychosaur, and tyrannosaur tracks were found on a 200ft cliff in Alaska
• In Alberta, Tyrants Aisle has over 120 tracks likely belonging to Edmontosaurus, a troodontid, Tyrannosaurus, and another theropod
• CT scans of track slabs shows how dinosaur feet moved through soft sediments
• Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) is being used to gather evidence of the first aerodynamically significant wings
• A new track site shows a couple sauropods walking together when a larger sauropod skids to avoid squashing a smaller individual.
• New sauropod finds in Hateg island Transylvania, Romania may be a fourth genus, but isn’t complete enough to get a new name
• Dinosaurs and crocodiles have hard eggshells that evolved independently
• A new titanosaur was found in NW Kenya
• Low melanosome (color pigment producer) diversity may be linked to low metabolism
• Compacted coarse cancellous bone (CCCB) that is common in burrowing animals was found in the hind limbs of a new Oryctodromeus relative
• Exceptional fossils don’t necessarily translate to good cellular and molecular preservation
• New opalized femur fragments from an ornithopod in lightening ridge show that young were born in the area
• Melanosomes are not enough to determine color. Structure, chemistry, and diet also have a big impact
• Calcium isotopes from Morocco and Niger support Spinosaurus as a fish-eater
• More neornithischian finds from south of Melbourne may end with one or two synonymized taxa in the near future
• New research shows ovarian follicles in an enantiornithine
• A sauropod footprint was found in a new sauropod bone, adding to the idea of trampling sauropods
• A dinosaur stampede like trackway was found near Quilpie, QLD, Australia
• Coprolites can preserve some soft tissue features and other information about temperatures and habitats
• The name Kamuysaurus is meant to mean that it is the god of Japanese dinosaurs based on its incredibly complete skeleton
• Deep learning can process CT scans and save time on analyzing images
• Equisetum, or horse tails, were probably the most nutritious food for young and adult sauropods
• Birds use their necks in a variety of ways, but they tend to have a lot of traits in common

This episode is brought to you in part by Columbia University Press. Get 30% off The Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them by Donald Prothero by using promo code DINO30 at cup.columbia.edu

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For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Coloradisaurus, links from Taissa Rodrigues, and our fun fact check out https://iknowdino.com/Coloradisaurus-Episode-256/

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