WEBVTT - Deinonychus: The Dinosaur That Sparked a Renaissance

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Boglebaum here Today. The late nineteen sixties through the seventies

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<v Speaker 1>are fondly remembered as the dinosaur Retaissance. There was a

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<v Speaker 1>sudden surge of exciting new discourse about our favorite prehistoric beasts.

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<v Speaker 1>The idea that birds descend from dinosaurs and now a

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<v Speaker 1>scientific consensus gained new traction. At the same time, old

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<v Speaker 1>beliefs regarding dinosaur metabolic rates came into question awhere. Previously,

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<v Speaker 1>our best scientific guess was that dinosaurs would have been big,

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<v Speaker 1>cold blooded lizards and therefore mostly slow and lethargic. During

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<v Speaker 1>this time, we started to understand that some might have

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<v Speaker 1>been active hunters. And it was all thanks to one

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<v Speaker 1>species unearthed in Montana that also became the basis of

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<v Speaker 1>Jurassic parks velociraptors. Today, let's talk about Diynonicus. Back in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen thirty one, while exploring southern Montana, paleontologist Barnum Brown

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<v Speaker 1>found the incomplete skeleton of a dinosaur that would have

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<v Speaker 1>measured some eight feet that's two and a half meters

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<v Speaker 1>in length. It was clearly a theropod, a member of

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<v Speaker 1>the same group as Alosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. This one

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<v Speaker 1>had an agile build. Not only was it light boned,

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<v Speaker 1>but there were long, wiry extensions on the tail vertebra.

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<v Speaker 1>Brown guessed the stiffened the appendage as a whole, helping

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<v Speaker 1>the tail act as a better counterweight to the rest

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<v Speaker 1>of the body. Though Brown planned to write a manuscript

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<v Speaker 1>about this intriguing new dinosaur, he was unable to finish

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<v Speaker 1>before his death in nineteen sixty three, But in his

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<v Speaker 1>later years, Brown showed the skeleton to a young researcher

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<v Speaker 1>named John Ostrom. August of nineteen sixty four found Ostrom

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<v Speaker 1>hunting for early Cretaceous dinosaurs around Bridger, Montana. Under the

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<v Speaker 1>summer sun. He and a colleague discovered the clawed hand

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<v Speaker 1>of a theropod peeking out of the earth. Then a

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<v Speaker 1>foot turned up, so did thousands of other bones. Ostrom

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<v Speaker 1>soon realized he was dealing with the same species that

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<v Speaker 1>Brown had unearthed decades earlier. He named the creature Dinonicus

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<v Speaker 1>anti rappus. At the time, he had recovered the bodies

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<v Speaker 1>of four individuals at a single Montana quarry, all lying

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<v Speaker 1>in close proximity to some bones from t Nantosaurus, a

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<v Speaker 1>plant eating dinosaur with a beak and a long tail

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<v Speaker 1>that would have grown to over twice the size of

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<v Speaker 1>a Dinonicus, possibly over five times the size. Dinonicus means

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<v Speaker 1>terrible claw. This was inspired by the huge curved claws

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<v Speaker 1>that topped the second toe of each foot. To Ostroum,

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<v Speaker 1>this was a revelation. Dinonicus would have held these claws

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<v Speaker 1>off the ground as it walked, standing sort of perched

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<v Speaker 1>with light bones, battle ready and athletic. Historically, dinosaurs were

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<v Speaker 1>thought to be plotting beasts, Buticus contradicted this assumption. Ostrom

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<v Speaker 1>wrote in nineteen sixty nine, it must have been a

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<v Speaker 1>fleet footed, highly predacious, extremely agile, and very active animal,

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<v Speaker 1>sensitive to many stimuli and quick in its responses. Ostrom's

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<v Speaker 1>work on Diynonicus was a catalyst for the dinosaur renaissance,

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<v Speaker 1>but you don't have to be a science enthusiast or

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<v Speaker 1>a history buff to appreciate its impact. The famous, though

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<v Speaker 1>fictionalized velociraptors from Jurassic Park were based on Dinonicus. Don't

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<v Speaker 1>get us wrong, there was an actual theropod named Velociraptor

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<v Speaker 1>that lived in Central Asia some seventy five to seventy

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<v Speaker 1>one million years ago. However, it was way smaller than

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<v Speaker 1>the creatures shown in the popular movies, which can look

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<v Speaker 1>a grown man in the eye. The real Velociraptor stood

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<v Speaker 1>just twenty eight inches tall at the hip. That's seventy

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<v Speaker 1>two centimeters, closer to the size of a wild turkey,

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<v Speaker 1>just with the longer body and more weight on its bones.

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<v Speaker 1>Dinonicus wasn't all that big either, but would have stood

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<v Speaker 1>about thirty eight inches tall at the hip or one meter,

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<v Speaker 1>and could grow more than eleven feet long that's three

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<v Speaker 1>and the third meters, so it would have been staring

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<v Speaker 1>into sam Nil's chest, not his eyes. Both Velociraptor and

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<v Speaker 1>Dinonicus belonged to the same family of bear pods, the dromiosaurs,

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<v Speaker 1>found in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. The dromiosaurs had

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<v Speaker 1>knife like teeth, big skulls, and long limbs. At least

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<v Speaker 1>some probably all of them had feathers to boot, but

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<v Speaker 1>let's revisit those terrible claws. Dinonicus was not unique in

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<v Speaker 1>having an enlarged talon on the second toe of each foot.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a standard dromiosaur feature, said toes were hyper extensible,

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<v Speaker 1>they could be pulled back into an almost vertical position.

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<v Speaker 1>Besides keeping the claw tips sharp, this trait gave them

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<v Speaker 1>a wide arc of motion. Ostrum Dgennonicus leaping through the air,

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<v Speaker 1>slashing wildly with the curved daggers on its flexible toes.

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<v Speaker 1>But more recent modeling has painted a different picture. In

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<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen, paleontologist Peter J. Bishop published a three D

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<v Speaker 1>Dinonicus hind limb reconstruction. According to his simulations, the toe

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<v Speaker 1>claws couldn't exert very much force. They were probably better

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<v Speaker 1>at grasping prey than disemboweling it. And remember the long

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<v Speaker 1>rods on Dinonicus's tail vertebra, Velociraptor, uteriraptor and other dromiosaurs

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<v Speaker 1>had those two experts think that they made all but

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<v Speaker 1>the base of the tail very rigid. That sort of

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<v Speaker 1>like a tightrope walker's long pole. It would have kept

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<v Speaker 1>the animal upright and balanced while moving. One velociraptor fossil,

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<v Speaker 1>discovered in nineteen ninety nine, with its tail in an

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<v Speaker 1>s curve, may challenge that view, though it's hard to

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<v Speaker 1>say whether the shape was the result of motion during

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<v Speaker 1>life or the settling of the bones after death. Speaking

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<v Speaker 1>of fossils, let's go back to Ostrum's find a four

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<v Speaker 1>carnivorous Dynonicus in close proximity to a herbivorous but much

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<v Speaker 1>larger to Nontosaurus. It got him thinking, he wrote in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty nine. The multiple remains suggest that Dinonicus may

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<v Speaker 1>have been gregarious and hunted in packs. Author Michael Crichton

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<v Speaker 1>ran with the idea. His original Jurassic Park novel published

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety, which was the basis for Steven Spielberg's

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety three movie adaptation, describes the raptors attacking their

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<v Speaker 1>prey in organized packs, working together to bring down dinosaurs

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<v Speaker 1>and humans alike. Yet scientists have cause for skepticism. Habitual

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<v Speaker 1>strategic pack hunting is quite rare among modern animals. Perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>Dinonicus and other dromiosaurs were loners for the most part,

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<v Speaker 1>but went into spontaneous group feeding frenzies every now and then.

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<v Speaker 1>After all, that's how modern komodo dragons roll. However, some birds,

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<v Speaker 1>the closest living relative of dinosaurs, have been observed hunting

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<v Speaker 1>in pairs, like peregrine falcons and Harris's hawks of the

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<v Speaker 1>American Southwest coordinate in groups of five, communicating through movements

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<v Speaker 1>and converging on prey from multiple angles. So maybe Crichton's

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<v Speaker 1>raptors and Prehistory's dromosaurs hunting like this isn't too far

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<v Speaker 1>fetched after all. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>how Dynonicus Upended the way we look at Dinosaurs on

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<v Speaker 1>how stuffworks dot com, written by Mark Mancini. Brainstuff is

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com.

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<v Speaker 1>It is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from

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