#massospondylus

[makairodonx]

My fourth entry for Jurassic July 2023: A pair of Massospondylus carinatus, male to the left and female to the right, provide ferns for their young to feed on. This relative of Plateosaurus which lived 200-183 mya in what is now South Africa is among the first dinosaurs that provided parental care to ts young.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Prosauropods sure know how to party!

[ash-arts-a-thing]

Some paleo babes I did recently

[pitta-the-italian]

Lil doodles on tha desk

[aclkplm208-blog]

Walking in the Elliot Formation

Walking in the Elliot Formation, South Africa and Lesotho in the early Jurassic.

[1dinodaily]

7/30/22 Massospondylus

[cienciasnacionales]

Con un cuerpo alargado, un cuello desproporcional y un peso que pudo oscilar en 75kg, el Massospondylus carinatus, un nuevo dinosaurio identificado en Sudáfrica se consagra como el sauropodomorfos más pequeño del mundo. Según un nuevo estudio publicado en un artículo en la revista Royal Society Open Science, un equipo de investigadores descubrió los restos fósiles de una nueva especie de…

[new-dinosaurs]

Qianlong shouhu Han et al., 2023 (new genus and species)

(Select bones and schematic skeletals of adult [a] and embryonic [b] individuals of Qianlong shouhu, with preserved bones in gray, from Han et al., 2023)

Meaning of name: Qianlong = Qian [alternative name for Guizhou] dragon [in Chinese]; shouhu = guarding [in Chinese]

Age: Early Jurassic (Sinemurian?)

Where found: Ziliujing Formation, Guizhou, China

How much is known: Three partial skeletons of adult individuals and five clutches of 3–16 eggs containing embryos.

Notes: Qianlong was an early sauropodomorph. It is notable not only for the exceptional preservation of its fossils, but also the fact that these specimens appear to be associated with nests, thus offering valuable information on their growth and reproductive behavior. As has also been found for some early sauropodomorphs, such as Massospondylus from the Early Jurassic of Southern Africa and Mussaurus from the Early Jurassic of Argentina, Qianlong appears to have laid its eggs in breeding colonies with adult individuals potentially watching over their nests. Qianlong was additionally similar to these other early sauropodomorph in being bipedal as an adult, but likely quadrupedal as a young juvenile.

Rigid, hard-shelled eggs have been found in multiple groups of dinosaurs, including tetanuran theropods (such as birds), hadrosaurids (duck-billed dinosaurs), and titanosaurian sauropods, as well as their closest living relatives, the crocodylians. As a result, it was long assumed that all dinosaurs probably laid hard-shelled eggs. However, recent evidence has suggested that the eggs of early dinosaurs may have instead had flexible, leathery shells, more similar to those of most lizards and some turtles, with rigid eggshells evolving several times in later dinosaur groups. The eggshells of Qianlong appear to have been leathery in structure, lending support to this hypothesis.

Reference: Han, F., Y. Yu, S. Zhang, R. Zeng, X. Wang, H. Cai, T. Wu, Y. Wen, S. Cai, C. Li, R. Wu, Q. Zhao, and X. Xu. 2023. Exceptional Early Jurassic fossils with leathery eggs shed light on dinosaur reproductive biology. National Science Review advance online publication. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwad258

[neovenatorgirlteeth]

OK sauropodomorph poll slightly obscure

[thepaleopetshop]

Merry Christmas!

the final box in our count down is Massospondylus… (more…)

[makairodonx]

Jurassic July Prompt List

For those of you who want to celebrate the biodiversity that flourished in the middle of the Mesozoic Era, here’s a prompt list for Jurassic Period fauna that I’ve made for the month of July:

1. Scutellosaurus

2. Dilophosaurus

3. Scelidosaurus

4. Massospondylus

5. Strongylosteus

6. Rhomaelosaurus

7. Icthyosaurus

8. Plesiosaurus

9. Sordes

10. Eurhinosaurus

11. Temnodontosaurus

12. Megalosaurus

13. Afrovenator

14. Jobaria

15. Cetiosaurus

16. Anchiornis

17. Mamenchisaurus

18. Yangchuanosaurus

19. Liopleurodon

20. Europasaurus

21. Rhamphorhynchus

22. Eustreptospondylus

23. Galeamopus

24. Harpactognathus

25. Miragaia

26. Camarasaurus

27. Torvosaurus

28. Brachiosaurus

29. Giraffatitan

30.Apatosaurus

31 Allosaurus

You can get to tag the art made for this prompt list with #jurassicjuly or #jurassic_july. Good luck!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

don't worry, marine ecosystems are getting their own polls

[tri-poke]

Zach can feel the little weird twitch of perception going the other way as if there is a pre-echo in his own head speaking the words just before they yell out of his mouth.

And there's the odd return sensation, like that feeling on the back of the neck that someone is looking at you when you can't know but you do anyway.

There's another twinge, like a great plucked string, the biggest, deepest geetar anyone ever made, so deep that it can't be heard, just felt like all them unseen eyes on the hairs at the back of the neck.

The flood of teeny spiders freezes. And even looking at them, they might as well be invisible, they look so much like the landscape with their coloring. It's like some old fairy tale where a witch brings the stones to life but then the spell gets broken and they're just stones again. If their eyes didn't shift to look at him when his mind gets them to waver into perception for a moment, he might even believe that is what happened.

The voice says more clearly now, even though it is definitely not a sound, just that same twitchy feeling in Zach's brain, You are open. Interesting. I didn't think humans could be open.

The clarity finally gives Zach a direction and looking, up from a crag in the cliff face, at least 25 feet up, the biggest spider that Zach has ever dreamed in a nightmare, let alone seen, clambers out of the shadows.

The damn thing is the size of a big Massospondylus but gives a bigger impression because of all the legs.

It's legs are as big as Zach's legs but they brush softly as it emerges, like nothing more than the static cling of his shirt to his pants after too vigorous a wash and dry keeps the huge thing stuck to the nearly vertical stone.

Worse, all eight of its eyes are locked on Zach, and the smallest of those are as big as Zach's face.

Worst, out of the corner of his eye, Zach can see Gale looking every which way, still looking for danger, and clearly not seeing the big damn spider over head or the teeny watchful rocks. And while Cookie is looking like she might have noticed the tiny spiders, she sure ain't looking remotely in the right direction to see the big'un.

From above the spider says in that not sound that Zach can feel, The problem, human, is that we also need the... rex. It's an odd feeling on the last word, like a big yawning stretch, as if the spider has never said such a word before and it isn't accustomed to the shape of it. It is a pet of yours? This... rex - food that we eat. Do you not eat? I must feed my young and my people. Many are they. And always hungry.

[gaetaniu]

Un fossile sudafricano rivela il più piccolo dinosauro sauropodomorfo del Giurassico

Massospondylus carinatus. Questo dinosauro pesava circa 75 kg, il che lo rende uno dei più piccoli sauropodomorfi conosciuti e il più piccolo mai segnalato del Giurassico. “I dinosauri sauropodomorfi sono stati i più grandi vertebrati terrestri di tutti i tempi, con masse corporee stimate in oltre 90 tonnellate“, hanno dichiarato la dott.ssa Kimberley Chapelle, paleontologa dell’American Museum…

[esportschimpnews]

Dinosaur Park will celebrate summer event with Massospondylus

Dinosaur Park will celebrate summer event with Massospondylus

Upjers has announced a summer event for its sim dinosaur park: Primeval Zoo It will be a party filled with balloons, helium boxes and dinosaurs. In addition to the treasure trove, players can also win an exclusive Massospondylus dinosaur from the early Jurassic period. Players can participate in the Dinosaur Park Summer Event until July 26, after which they will have an additional week to redeem…

[comparativetarot]

Chevalier d’Ammonites. Art by Anastasia Kashian-Smith, from Les Dinosaures de Marseille.