Irritator - The Petulant Predator

spinosaurus are a diverse flowing into theropods that would their crocodile in skulls giant arms and in some cases extraordinary sales truly stand out amongst a theropod contemporaries their history discovery however has not been the best for this unique family of dinosaurs even the study of the most well known member of the family Spinosaurus will suddenly cut short during a World War two bombing raid which were nearly the rest of the 20th century heavily impacted our understanding of these animals it wasn't until this discovery in description of Baryonyx and other related animals that the world of the Spinosaurus began to reveal its wonders and nowadays a great deal was known about this once mysterious family the subject of this video irritated is a member of this family and its initial description was a muddled one to say the least irritated story began when fossil poachers excavated a large short concentration containing the rear end of a large skull with lower jaws near the town of Santana toka RiRi the fossil was then acquired by dealers who illegally sold it to reap it wild of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany the identity of the skull was initially assumed to be that of a large pterosaur since the region or the fossil was found in the chaff added or arabi plateau is famous for its large quantity of pterosaur finds like animals like tapa Jarrah and two panned actors and the museum otter often bought such finds from such locations as the fossil promised to be a unique discovery German and British pterosaur experts were contracted to study the specimen with the paper describing it as a pterosaur already having been submitted for publication however authors Everhard fray and hans-dieter Suz were disabused by this though through peer reviewers who in who instead suggested the fossil to belong to that of a theropod dinosaur and thus a form of pterosaur as originally thought the skull of the newly discovered dinosaur was flattened sideways and is is common with most fossils was partly crushed evident corrosion on certain bones indicated that acid preparation had been attempted and a collectors a tent in dissolving parts of the matrix containing the inadvertently affected it as well as this and hopes for the fossil to look more complete and fast more valuable the fossil traders severely obscure the skull beneath a layer of plaster a widespread practice amongst local collectors in the air in the region the buyers of the specimen were unaware of the modifications until the fossil was sent to universities in the United Kingdom for CT scan imaging where it was revealed that the collectors had tried to reconstruct the skull by grafting pieces of the maxilla onto the front of the rostrum endorsed now the skull designated s MN s 5 802 2 became the holotype specimen of a new genus named irritated Challenger I in February 1996 when it was first described by paleontologist David Martel arthur Cruikshank Everhard frey phillip small and malcolm clark in this paper Martel and his team wrote that the generic name of irritates her came from the irritation at the author's felt when discovering that the snout of the animal had been artificially elongated the type species irritates challenger I was named after professor challenger a character in Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novels specifically the lost world were in the story a plateau was discovered in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals particularly dinosaurs are discovered to still be alive Martel and his team originally classified irritated as a nanny Raptor and dinosaur in a clade bore to Soria a group now not in use as a close relative to the feathered ornithol - ors and truer daunted given its dental morphology long snout and assumed thin shape crest were features unknown in other money raptor and dinosaurs the researchers erected the new family errata roy day within the clay due to irritate as distinct appearance the researchers recognized Simmons affinities with Spinosaurus in that they both had a very similar shaped and non serrated teeth but noted that the latter's mandible would not conform with the front of irritated upper jaw as well as this Compsognathus and ornithol Westies also bore no serrations and some of their teeth giving credence to a potentially Manor Raptor and irritate ER these claims were questioned by Alexander Kellner a leading experts in pterosaurs and a notable paleontologists in Brazil who found that the irritated skull lacked the one distinguishing feature diagnosis the manner app turns at the time which was having a Jugal or cheekbone forming part of the anti orbital Fenster he also pointed out that since the irritates a hollow tart likes the tip of the snout knowing if Spinosaurus is den Thierry could complement it or not was not possible until more specimens were described to find out if this would actually be the case based on these comparisons with Spinosaurus Keller resolved irritate ER as a Spinosaurus with this newfound knowledge Martel and his team made a detailed read ascription of the specimen in 2002 after excavating away the cow Souris rock matrix obscured much of the fossil this nuri description of the now fully prepared specimen the Gators many of Martel and the colleagues original observations which were largely based on misinterpretations of the damaged and concealed skull the estimate of the length of the complete skull revealed itself to be 24 centimeters shorter than previously proposed and what was thought to be a prominent head crest proved only to be an unattached intermediate bone fragment although some reconstructions of irritates or have depicted it with such headgear furthermore additional skull bones were identified and as in the previous study the team regarded Spinosaurus as the most similar taxon to irritate ER but this time instead of basing relation off of appearance alone this time it was taxonomic in fact since little was known as Spinosaurus as skull massara at the time the authors even suggested a possible junior synonymous irritated with Spinosaurus meaning that irritate er could just be a specimen of Spinosaurus as more Spinosaurus as skull became known this thinking has since been refuted and the two taxa are now considered distinct although the exact site of discovery is uncertain due to how the specimen was obtained the specimen most likely stems from the Rahm Aldo formation previously designated to the Raimondo member of the then Santana formation this assessment was made through questioning of local fossil dealers who hinted at a locality near the village of book six close to Santana dhoka RiRi since the Romano formation is indeed exposed around this area and the rock matrix encasing the holotype has the same color as well as textures and rocks at the renown donation this locality is now regarded as the most probable site of discovery after the re-examination of the skull irritated is now known to have as of yet the most completely preserved spinosaurus skull known only missing parts of the maxilla premaxilla and denturri alongside irritate er another spinosaurus specimen was also recovered from the same time and place named anchor to Ramu LeMay by Kellner and Campos in February 1996 the holotype specimen consisted of an isolated snout tip extracted from a cow Souris nodule new using a technique originally developed for pterosaur fossils the generic name of anger Tarawa derives her protective spirits in the aboriginal Tippie Indian culture of Brazil of the same name and a specific name honoring the late Brazilian paleontologist Mario Wimmer who informed Kellner of the specimen in 1991 in 1997 the validity of the anchor trauma specimen was called into question by paleontologists allen cherie and angela Milner who considered anchor trauma a likely junior synonym of irritate er noting that both genre had retracted nostrils long jaws and characteristics spinosaur identity as well as both coming from the same time period and formation Paul Sereno and colleagues in 1998 further agreed with this possibility and in addition observed that the horror type of anger tirana seems are almost complete that of irritate er meaning that they could potentially be the same specimen Kelleher and Campos in 2000 and away Machado in 2005 expressed the opinion that the fossils did indeed belong to two different and distinct genre noting at the holotype of anger Tarawa was clearly more laterally flaccid than that of irritate ER a review of both fossils by Marco sally's and Cesar Schultz in 2017 further noted that the specimens also differed in other aspects of their preservation with the irritated specimen being brighter in color and affected by a vertical crack while the anchor trauma specimen bears many cavities with a damage to the teeth of the irritates a hollow tie been much less severe in comparison sales and Schultz also identified a possible point of overlap that being the third left to maxillary tooth which seemed to line up with both specimens but also that the skull of anga tirana could have been larger than that of irritate ER based on the proportions of the closely related genus Baryonyx they therefore concluded that the two specimens do not belong to the same individual but thats anonyme at the genus level will need to be further verified by more overlapping remains to come to a full conclusion if anger Terramax and irritate er are found to be specimens of the same genus then irritates would be the valid scientific name under rules of priority as it was named almost a month earlier than i angered her anima moving on from taxonomy the size of irritate AHA's been estimated to be considerably smaller than that of other known Spinosaurus estimated at between 6 to 8 meters in length and a ton in weight interestingly from looking into the holotype of irritate ER it was noted that some of the scar bones had not yet fully fused indicating that the specimen was in fact a sub-adult and the irritation once fully grown could have been bigger but by how much is as of yet unknown irritate ER also possesses a thin sagittal crest which constructed from elongated nasal bones is commonplace in Spinosaurus and while the shape and height of the structure is unknown of in irritate ER it is known to have served a possible display function when the animal was still alive the crest possibly being brighter in color to the rest of the body to stand out like wasn't a hornbills as an example in life irritated environment in what is now known as the ramada formation while some what we understand a tropical one largely corresponding to the present-day climb in Brazil the formation has been interpreted as a coastal Lagoon with a regular freshwater influence which would have contended with cycles of transgressing and regressing sea levels thus lagoon like environment is what led to the ronaldo formation to be considered a legacy at a site that is known to preserve fossils whether they be animals or plants in excellent condition the site has first preserved a wide variety of animals in exquisite detail from turtles dinosaurs and especially pterosaurs the interactions for which the latter would have had with irritate ER I will discuss soon as well as the habitats the taphonomy of the irritated holotype the changes between death and fossilization has been discussed by some researchers nation colleagues in 2004 asserted that the ramada formation dinosaur fauna is represented by animals that dies near shorelines or rivers before being carried out to sea and eventually being fossilized in 2018 a Rio Llano and colleagues argued against a scenario stating that the irritated holotype mandible was preserved in articulation with the rest of the skull whereas if the carcass was floating out at sea this part of the skull would have likely detached in the powerful currents they also noted that the corpse sort of quickly sank due to the osteoporosis of the skeleton iev increased bone density once the animal had died the research from the investigation therefore concluded that the fossils from the whole Santana group which the Romero formation as a part of represented organisms that upon their deaths were buried in their natural habitats instead of being deposited at other than in their present position upon death like other spinosaurus irritated semi-aquatic habits as has been shown in studies of other spinosaurus for the use of techniques like an isotope analysis and bone histology it has been found that irritate and its relatives took advantage of aquatic prey in environments usually marginal in coastal habitats the latter being present for irritate ER allowing spinosaurus to occupy distinct ecological niche avoiding competition with more commonplace terrestrial theropods a 2018 study by paleontologist thomas arden found that the frontal bones of irritated Spinosaurus and sigil Massa Soros were adapted in being arched concave on top and narrowed at the front all features that point towards adaptations for an aquatic lifestyle these features results in the eyes of the animal being positioned further upon the head than in other theropods something that is a train nowadays seen in crocodilian these traits put together permit an animal to see above the waterline when submerged indicating that Spinosaurus like he rotator behavior the similar weights of modern crocodilians keeping their bodies submerged and out of view whilst patrolling their aquatic habitats in terms of irritations lifestyle Martel and colleagues upon the discovery of the irritates the holotype theorize that irritate ER with its elongated snout and unser rated conical teeth more than likely had a piscivores of fish eating diet although this was based off of when the animal was regarded as a manny raptor and these observations still hold true today through the understanding that irritate ER was a spinosaurus spinosaurus like he rotator have very narrow and elongated jaws compared to other theropods and with their relatively uniformly pointed teeth this jaw setup is quite similar to that of the indian gharial the most per skipper ascitic stamped crocodilian known these teeth designed - not for tearing or shearing through flesh like other theropods but instead of geared more to grab and hold prey in place a key adaptation to hold on to their more slippery prey another adaptation shared with crocodilians includes a stiff secondary palate and reduced ant orbital fenestra attributes that make the skull of an animal more assistant to torsion from prey Ison's struggling in the jaws of the predator other theropods like carcharodontosaurus as an example lack these features exchanging this added strength for lighter skulls as to maintain a light but also powerful head to help in shearing through the flesh of their prey the nostrils of irritate er are also shifted far back from the snout tip this alongside their secondary palate help to make respiration possible even if most of the jaw is under war or while holding prey the sagittal crest of irritated is also indication for pronounced neck and musculature which would have been necessary to quickly close the jaws against the water and to withdraw the head rapidly from said water sails and Schultz in 2017 from the irritated and baryonic currents might have relied more on their sense of smell in locating prey than spinosaurus did since the former had large lesser attracted nostrils as well as more room in their skulls for the nasal cavity spinosaurus itself based on the study would have made heavier use of senses like sight as well as certain mechanoreceptors on the tip of its snout that in life would have helped Spinosaurus to sense prey moving in the water but irritated us not just a pure fish either as it in its relatives have been known to prey on other organisms Baryonyx a relative of irritate ER has been found with portions of a young Iguanodon found inside the skeleton of the specimen and nation colleagues in 2004 supported the idea that irritates a hunt in both aquatic and terrestrial animals as a Drent generalist within its coastal habitat a tooth belonging to that of irritate or was discovered to still be inserted into the fossil neck vertebral column of her own Ithaca a pterosaur based on the size of the vertebral column the pterosaur and life likely had a wingspan of around 3.3 meters when it was still alive this insightful fossil gives further credence there irritate and other spinosaurus hunted both aquatic and terrestrial animals and gives us a glimpse back into the world of irritate ER the specimen having inspired a large number of pale art depictions of irritate our feasting a partner hapless pterosaur it is not known if this irritated killed the pterosaur or scavenged upon the remains but the vision into the past provided by the specimen is still nevertheless important to our understanding of these animals a possible food web of the ronaldo formation was presented in 2018 by Aureliano and colleagues proposing that spinosaur islands from the formation including irritate ER would have also preyed upon terrestrial and aquatic Crocodylus forms juveniles of their own species turtles as well as small to medium-sized dinosaurs making them apex predators of this particular ecosystem and with that I thank you for watching this video I hope you enjoyed the small lengthy look at this unique animal and I hope you learn something new thanks to my recent collaboration on Ben's channel I have finally reached 1,000 subscribers and I'm so happy I can broadcast my thoughts and topics on to so many people it's a really cool thing and I hope to continue making these videos for all of you to enjoy more paleontology videos will be coming out soon as well as more New Zealand bird of the week instalments so be sure to look out for that I'm Henry the paleo guy and I'll see you next time whenever that may be see you later [Music]

Channel: Henry the PaleoGuy

Views: 120,808

Rating: 4.9359488 out of 5

Keywords: Irritator, Irritator challengeri, Spinosaurid, Baryonyx, Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Brazil, Santana Formation, Romualdo Formation, Tapejara, Tupandactylus, Pterosaur, Fossils, Ornithoceirus, Walking with Dinosaurs, Prehistoric Park, Megalodon, Mosasaurus, Aquatic, National Geographic, Paleontology, Biology, Zoology, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Evolution, TREY the Explainer, Ben G Thomas, History, Cryptozoology, Documentary, Science, Nature, Speculative Evolution, Suchomimus, Fish, Conical, Crocodile, Reptile, Angaturama

Id: Aoq-Wk-QKfo

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 07 2019