Nipponosaurus: I Know Dino Podcast Episode 180
Nipponosaurus: I Know Dino Podcast Episode 180
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Episode 180 is all about Nipponosaurus a hadrosaur found on the island North of Hokkaido—then owned by Japan, but now by Russia—it can be seen in the Holoscape interface in the Innovation Center in Jurassic World
This episode was originally published on May 9, 2018
Appears in the Holoscape interface in the Innovation Center in Jurassic World (probably lived in Gallimimus Valley)
Type species is Nipponosaurus sachalinensis
Lambeosaurine hadrosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now the southern part of Sinegorsk, Sakhalin Island in Russia (which was part of Japan, specifically Karafuto Prefecture, when the dinosaur was named--that land was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1945)
Name means Japanese lizard
Named in 1936 by Professor Takumo Nagao from the Imperial University of Hokkaido
Name refers to Nippon, the Japanese name of Japan
First dinosaur named based on a specimen found on Japanese territory
Discovered in November 1934, during construction of a hospital
Found a juvenile specimen, about 60% complete (includes dentary, skull elements, vertebrae, and parts of the forelimbs and hindlimbs)
Hard to figure out when it lived, but based on associated mollusks, probably lived around 80 million years ago
At first thought to be an adult, because it had co-ossified sacral vertebra, but later on scientists doubted this, because the specimen was so small
Some scientists think it doesn't have any diagnostic characteristics, and therefore is a nomen dubium
In 2017 Ryuji Takasaki dissected three bones (femur, rib, chevron) and found only two lines of arrested growth, which show it was a juvenile
About 13 ft (4 m) long
Because specimen found was a juvenile, it's possible the head crest changed as it matured
Probably buried in a marine setting, not far from shore, based on terrestrial plant fossils found nearby. Because of this, Nipponosaurus may have lived on low-lying plains near the coast
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