Introducing Moros intrepidus, the harbinger of doom.

Moros intrepidus. Credit: Jorge Gonzalez

Tyrannosauroidea, the superfamily of carnivorous dinosaurs that includes the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex, originated in the Middle Jurassic, approximately 165 million years ago, and was a dominant component of the dinosaur faunas of the Northern Hemisphere. All tyrannosaurs were bipedal predators characterized by premaxillary teeth with a D-shaped cross section, fused nasals, extreme pneumaticity in the skull roof and lower jaws, a pronounced muscle attachment ridge on the ilium, and an elevated femoral head. But for most of their evolutionary history, tyrannosauroids were mostly small-bodied animals and only reached gigantic size during the final 20 million years of the Cretaceous. Now, the discovery of a new, diminutive tyrannosauroid, Moros intrepidus gen. et sp. nov., shed lights on the successful radiation of Campanian tyrannosauroids.

The holotype (NCSM 33392), preserves a partial right hind limb including portions of the femur, tibia, second and fourth metatarsals, and phalanges of the fourth pedal digit. It was recovered from the lower Mussentuchit Member (6–7 m above the Ruby Ranch contact), upper Cedar Mountain Formation, Emery County, Utah, USA. This small-bodied, gracile-limbed tyrannosauroid lived about 96 million years ago. The name derived from Greek word Moros (an embodiment of impending doom) in reference to the establishment of the Cretaceous tyrannosauroid lineage in NA, and the Latin word intrepidus (intrepid), in reference to the hypothesized intracontinental dispersal of tyrannosaurs during this interval.

Bone microstructure of M. intrepidus (NCSM 33392). From Zanno et al., 2019.

NCSM 33392 derives from a skeletally immature individual (6-7 years) nearing adult size . According to the histological analysis, M. intrepidus exhibits a moderate growth rate, similar to Guanlong, a more primitive tyrannosauroid from the Late Jurassic of China. By contrast, large-bodied, tyrannosaurines from the last stages of the Cretaceous, like Gorgosaurus, were already triple their masses at similar ages. M. intrepidus suggests that North American tyrannosauroids were restricted to small sizes for a protracted period of ~15 million years and at some point at the Turonian, they embarked on a trend of rapid body size increases, to became the top predators of the Cretaceous.

 

References:

Zanno, L.E, Tucker, R.T., Canoville, A., Avrahami, H.M., Gates, T.A., Makovicky, P.J. (2019), Diminutive fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the North American fossil record, Communications Biology, DOI: 10.1038/s42003-019-0308-7

Introducing Bajadasaurus pronuspinax.

Bajadasaurus reconstruction (Museo Municipal Ernesto Bachmann, Villa El Chocón, Neuquén).

Dicraeosauridae is a family of mid-sized sauropod dinosaurs characterized by a distinctive vertebral column with paired, long, neural spines. The group was first described in 1914 by Werner Janensch with the discovery of the nearly complete skeletons of Dicraeosaurus in the expeditions to the upper Jurassic beds of Tendaguru, Tanzania. Dicraeosauridae includes  Amargasaurus, Pilmatueia, Suuwassea, and Brachytrachelopan. Now, the description of Bajadasaurus pronuspinax gen. et sp. nov., from the Early Lower Cretaceous of Bajada Colorada Formation in Northern Patagonia, Argentina), shed new light on the function of its spines and the defense behavior in sauropod dinosaurs.

Bajadasaurus was discovered in 2013, by a team of paleontologists from CONICET, Fundación Félix de Azara, Universidad Maimónides, and Museo Paleontológico Ernesto Bachmann. The generic name derived from Bajada (Spanish, in reference to the locality Bajada Colorada) and saurus (Greek, lizard). The specific name derived from pronus (Latin, bent over forward) and spinax (Greek, spine), referring to the anteriorly pointed, curved, neural spines of the cervical vertebrae.

Skeletal elements of Bajadasaurus pronuspinax. From Gallina et al., 2019.

The holotype, MMCh-PV 75, includes a nearly complete skull (left maxilla, left lacrimal, both prefrontals, both frontals, both parietals, both postorbitals, both squamosals, left quadratojugal, both pterygoids, both quadrates, supraoccipital, exoccipital-opisthotic complex, basioccipital, basisphenoid, both prootics, both laterosphenoids, both orbitosphenoids, both dentaries, left surangular, both angulars, both splenials, left prearticular, left articular, isolated upper tooth row), both proatlases, atlantal neurapophyses, axis and the fifth cervical vertebra.

The skull of Bajadasaurus is gracile, with dorsally exposed orbits, dorsoventrally compressed occipital condyle, extremely narrow basipterygoid processes, elongate and slender anterior processes of the squamosals, medially extended post-temporal fenestrae, short lateral temporal fenestrae and a reduced dentition in the maxilla and dentary, that largely differs from other known taxa within Dicraeosauridae. But the most striking feature of Bajadasaurus is the presence of extremely long cervical neural spines that curve anteriorly. Amargasaurus exhibit the same development of cervical neural spine elongation as Bajadasaurus, but the spines of the former point backwards rather than forwards. Dicraeosaurus and Brachytrachelopan show anteriorly inclined neural spines in the cervical vertebrae, but the spines are much shorter than in Bajadasaurus.

A group of Bajadasaurus. Illustration: Jorge A. González.

The discovery of Amargasaurus cazaui in 1991, from the Early Cretaceous beds of La Amarga Formation of Northern Patagonia, renewed the discussion on the peculiar vertebral anatomy of these sauropod dinosaurs, including interpretations as a support structure for a thermoregulatory sail, a padded crest as a display and/or clattering structure, a dorsal hump, or as internal cores of dorsal horn. Those explanation, except the last one, require that these long and extremely gracile bone projections, now recognized in Bajadasaurus as well, can support enough physical stress to avoid fracturing. Bone is stronger and stiffer in passive situations, however, horns and other keratin-based materials are tougher and highly resistant to impact-related fractures. Therefore, the keratinous sheath in Amargasaurus and perhaps Bajadasaurus provides a better mechanical solution against a potential fracture.

 

References:

Gallina, Pablo A., Apesteguía, Sebastián, Canale, Juan I., Haluza, Alejandro (2019), A new long-spined dinosaur from Patagonia sheds light on sauropod defense system, Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 1392 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37943-3

Janensch, W. Die Wirbelsäule der Gattung Dicraeosaurus. Palaeontographica Supplement 7, 37–133 (1929).

Salgado, L. & Bonaparte, J. F. Un nuevo saurópodo Dicraeosauridae, Amargasaurus cazaui gen et sp. nov., de la Formación La Amarga, Neocomiano de la provincia del Neuquén, Argentina. Ameghiniana 28, 333–346 (1991).