1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: Boglebaum here Today. The late nineteen sixties through the seventies 3 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: are fondly remembered as the dinosaur Retaissance. There was a 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:22,240 Speaker 1: sudden surge of exciting new discourse about our favorite prehistoric beasts. 5 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,239 Speaker 1: The idea that birds descend from dinosaurs and now a 6 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: scientific consensus gained new traction. At the same time, old 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: beliefs regarding dinosaur metabolic rates came into question awhere. Previously, 8 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: our best scientific guess was that dinosaurs would have been big, 9 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 1: cold blooded lizards and therefore mostly slow and lethargic. During 10 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: this time, we started to understand that some might have 11 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: been active hunters. And it was all thanks to one 12 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 1: species unearthed in Montana that also became the basis of 13 00:00:53,720 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: Jurassic parks velociraptors. Today, let's talk about Diynonicus. Back in 14 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, while exploring southern Montana, paleontologist Barnum Brown 15 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: found the incomplete skeleton of a dinosaur that would have 16 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: measured some eight feet that's two and a half meters 17 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: in length. It was clearly a theropod, a member of 18 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:20,400 Speaker 1: the same group as Alosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. This one 19 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,759 Speaker 1: had an agile build. Not only was it light boned, 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:27,200 Speaker 1: but there were long, wiry extensions on the tail vertebra. 21 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: Brown guessed the stiffened the appendage as a whole, helping 22 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,480 Speaker 1: the tail act as a better counterweight to the rest 23 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,199 Speaker 1: of the body. Though Brown planned to write a manuscript 24 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: about this intriguing new dinosaur, he was unable to finish 25 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: before his death in nineteen sixty three, But in his 26 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: later years, Brown showed the skeleton to a young researcher 27 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: named John Ostrom. August of nineteen sixty four found Ostrom 28 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: hunting for early Cretaceous dinosaurs around Bridger, Montana. Under the 29 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: summer sun. He and a colleague discovered the clawed hand 30 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: of a theropod peeking out of the earth. Then a 31 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,679 Speaker 1: foot turned up, so did thousands of other bones. Ostrom 32 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: soon realized he was dealing with the same species that 33 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: Brown had unearthed decades earlier. He named the creature Dinonicus 34 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: anti rappus. At the time, he had recovered the bodies 35 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:23,919 Speaker 1: of four individuals at a single Montana quarry, all lying 36 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: in close proximity to some bones from t Nantosaurus, a 37 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: plant eating dinosaur with a beak and a long tail 38 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: that would have grown to over twice the size of 39 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: a Dinonicus, possibly over five times the size. Dinonicus means 40 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:42,079 Speaker 1: terrible claw. This was inspired by the huge curved claws 41 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: that topped the second toe of each foot. To Ostroum, 42 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: this was a revelation. Dinonicus would have held these claws 43 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: off the ground as it walked, standing sort of perched 44 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:57,639 Speaker 1: with light bones, battle ready and athletic. Historically, dinosaurs were 45 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:03,399 Speaker 1: thought to be plotting beasts, Buticus contradicted this assumption. Ostrom 46 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 1: wrote in nineteen sixty nine, it must have been a 47 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: fleet footed, highly predacious, extremely agile, and very active animal, 48 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: sensitive to many stimuli and quick in its responses. Ostrom's 49 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: work on Diynonicus was a catalyst for the dinosaur renaissance, 50 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: but you don't have to be a science enthusiast or 51 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: a history buff to appreciate its impact. The famous, though 52 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 1: fictionalized velociraptors from Jurassic Park were based on Dinonicus. Don't 53 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: get us wrong, there was an actual theropod named Velociraptor 54 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: that lived in Central Asia some seventy five to seventy 55 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: one million years ago. However, it was way smaller than 56 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: the creatures shown in the popular movies, which can look 57 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: a grown man in the eye. The real Velociraptor stood 58 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: just twenty eight inches tall at the hip. That's seventy 59 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,840 Speaker 1: two centimeters, closer to the size of a wild turkey, 60 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: just with the longer body and more weight on its bones. 61 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: Dinonicus wasn't all that big either, but would have stood 62 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: about thirty eight inches tall at the hip or one meter, 63 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: and could grow more than eleven feet long that's three 64 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: and the third meters, so it would have been staring 65 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: into sam Nil's chest, not his eyes. Both Velociraptor and 66 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: Dinonicus belonged to the same family of bear pods, the dromiosaurs, 67 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: found in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. The dromiosaurs had 68 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: knife like teeth, big skulls, and long limbs. At least 69 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 1: some probably all of them had feathers to boot, but 70 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: let's revisit those terrible claws. Dinonicus was not unique in 71 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: having an enlarged talon on the second toe of each foot. 72 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: It was a standard dromiosaur feature, said toes were hyper extensible, 73 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: they could be pulled back into an almost vertical position. 74 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: Besides keeping the claw tips sharp, this trait gave them 75 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: a wide arc of motion. Ostrum Dgennonicus leaping through the air, 76 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,960 Speaker 1: slashing wildly with the curved daggers on its flexible toes. 77 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,919 Speaker 1: But more recent modeling has painted a different picture. In 78 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, paleontologist Peter J. Bishop published a three D 79 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: Dinonicus hind limb reconstruction. According to his simulations, the toe 80 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: claws couldn't exert very much force. They were probably better 81 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: at grasping prey than disemboweling it. And remember the long 82 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: rods on Dinonicus's tail vertebra, Velociraptor, uteriraptor and other dromiosaurs 83 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 1: had those two experts think that they made all but 84 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,599 Speaker 1: the base of the tail very rigid. That sort of 85 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: like a tightrope walker's long pole. It would have kept 86 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:49,479 Speaker 1: the animal upright and balanced while moving. One velociraptor fossil, 87 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 1: discovered in nineteen ninety nine, with its tail in an 88 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: s curve, may challenge that view, though it's hard to 89 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,880 Speaker 1: say whether the shape was the result of motion during 90 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: life or the settling of the bones after death. Speaking 91 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,360 Speaker 1: of fossils, let's go back to Ostrum's find a four 92 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,760 Speaker 1: carnivorous Dynonicus in close proximity to a herbivorous but much 93 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:15,240 Speaker 1: larger to Nontosaurus. It got him thinking, he wrote in 94 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. The multiple remains suggest that Dinonicus may 95 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: have been gregarious and hunted in packs. Author Michael Crichton 96 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,680 Speaker 1: ran with the idea. His original Jurassic Park novel published 97 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety, which was the basis for Steven Spielberg's 98 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,840 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three movie adaptation, describes the raptors attacking their 99 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: prey in organized packs, working together to bring down dinosaurs 100 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: and humans alike. Yet scientists have cause for skepticism. Habitual 101 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: strategic pack hunting is quite rare among modern animals. Perhaps 102 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:55,159 Speaker 1: Dinonicus and other dromiosaurs were loners for the most part, 103 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: but went into spontaneous group feeding frenzies every now and then. 104 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 1: After all, that's how modern komodo dragons roll. However, some birds, 105 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: the closest living relative of dinosaurs, have been observed hunting 106 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 1: in pairs, like peregrine falcons and Harris's hawks of the 107 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,640 Speaker 1: American Southwest coordinate in groups of five, communicating through movements 108 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: and converging on prey from multiple angles. So maybe Crichton's 109 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: raptors and Prehistory's dromosaurs hunting like this isn't too far 110 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: fetched after all. Today's episode is based on the article 111 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: how Dynonicus Upended the way we look at Dinosaurs on 112 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com, written by Mark Mancini. Brainstuff is 113 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com. 114 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 1: It is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from 115 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 116 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,239 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.