WEBVTT - How Did Utahraptor Work?

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

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<v Speaker 1>Utah is prime dino hunting country. Of fossils representing more

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<v Speaker 1>than one hundred and fifteen dinosaur species have been unearthed

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<v Speaker 1>inside the state's borders. Most of these species weren't identified

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<v Speaker 1>until recently, as in within the past twenty nine years. Truly,

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<v Speaker 1>this is a golden age for paleontology in the Rocky

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<v Speaker 1>Mountain West. One of the beasts found there, indeed, one

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<v Speaker 1>that seems to be totally unique to Grand County, Utah,

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<v Speaker 1>is the Utah raptor, a carnivorous dinosaur with frightful claws.

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<v Speaker 1>It lived around one hundred and thirty five million years

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<v Speaker 1>ago and boasts a few Jurassic Park connections, as the

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<v Speaker 1>name raptor suggests. Yet, by various estimates, Utah Raptor could

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<v Speaker 1>grow to be fifteen, eighteen, or perhaps even twenty three

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<v Speaker 1>feet long. That's from about four and a half to

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<v Speaker 1>seven meters. That could make this dino a whole lot

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<v Speaker 1>bigger than any raptor in Steven Spielberg's filmography. The Utah

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<v Speaker 1>Raptor was named the state's official dinosaur in twenty eighteen.

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<v Speaker 1>But this eventual home of the Utah Jazz basketball team

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<v Speaker 1>and the Great Salt Lake looked very different. When Utah

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<v Speaker 1>Raptor reigned about one hundred and thirty five million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>the Jurassic period of Earth's geologic history was coming to

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<v Speaker 1>a close. It was followed by the Cretaceous period, which

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<v Speaker 1>lasted until a mass extinction event about sixty six million

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<v Speaker 1>years ago that killed off the last of the dinosaurs

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<v Speaker 1>except for birds. Utah Raptor lived early in the Cretaceous.

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<v Speaker 1>At that time, the face of Utah was transforming, thanks

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<v Speaker 1>in no small part to everyone's favorite pretzel topping salt.

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<v Speaker 1>Without it, we might not know that utah Raptor ever existed. Okay, along,

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<v Speaker 1>before even the first dinosaurs showed up, there was a

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<v Speaker 1>deep basin along what's now the Utah Colorado Border. Seawater

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<v Speaker 1>flowed in and as it evaporated, it left behind giant

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<v Speaker 1>piles of salt that were literally thousands of feet tall

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<v Speaker 1>that is hundreds and hundreds of meters. A rocky debris

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<v Speaker 1>later covered up those salt beds. As time passed, the

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<v Speaker 1>now underground cache of salt started getting deformed by this

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<v Speaker 1>heavy overlying material. Parts of Utah's terrain were raised up

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<v Speaker 1>by the shifting salt, other spots dipped down. Grand County

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<v Speaker 1>was one of those places where this movement or salt

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<v Speaker 1>tectonics created big depressions across the landscape, and in the

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<v Speaker 1>early Cretaceous these became the home of vibrant ponds and lakes.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a perfect environment for future fossils. A North

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<v Speaker 1>America was a fairly dry place in those days, an

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<v Speaker 1>erosion was rampant, but here the inflow of water and

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<v Speaker 1>sediment to these low elevation lakes did a good job

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<v Speaker 1>of covering up and preserving the bodies of the animals

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<v Speaker 1>that died there, animals like the Utah raptor. The two

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<v Speaker 1>oldest assemblages of Cretaceous dinosaurs in the entire North American

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<v Speaker 1>fossil record are both preserved in Grand County rocks. For

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<v Speaker 1>the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works,

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<v Speaker 1>spoke via email with Jim Kirkland, Utah's official state paleontologist.

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<v Speaker 1>He explained about one hundred and thirty five million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>local subsidence in Grand County uniquely preserved a series of

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<v Speaker 1>lakes and ponds teeming with lungfish, chain mail covered bony fish,

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<v Speaker 1>and spiny sharks. Utah raptor stocked iguanodonts and young sauropods,

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<v Speaker 1>while the heavily spined and armored gastonia looked on. Iguanodonts

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<v Speaker 1>were beaked animals, Sauropods were long necked giants, and Gastonia

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<v Speaker 1>was a type of armor plated dinosaur built like a

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<v Speaker 1>living tank. All of them had vegetarian diets, though flowering

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<v Speaker 1>plants hadn't developed yet. Most of the vegetation there consisted

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<v Speaker 1>of conifers and ferns. A utah raptor was the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>type of raptor, with an estimated weight of about six

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<v Speaker 1>hundred to eight hundred pounds or two hundred and fifty

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<v Speaker 1>to three fifty kilos. They would have been about the

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<v Speaker 1>size of a large black bear or a small grizzly.

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<v Speaker 1>As for the infamous velociraptor, it likely weighed in at

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<v Speaker 1>just eighty five pounds or so about forty kilos. A

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<v Speaker 1>native of Late Cretaceous Asia, the real velociraptor was a

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<v Speaker 1>small bodied predator far removed from its Hollywood name sake.

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<v Speaker 1>The raptors in the Jurassic Park franchise were inspired by

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<v Speaker 1>larger species, but like all of these relatives, utah raptor

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<v Speaker 1>had an outsized, sickle shaped claw on each foot. The

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<v Speaker 1>animals held these claws upright as they walked. The claws

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<v Speaker 1>had a core of bone measuring up to eight point

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<v Speaker 1>seven inches that's twenty two centimeters long, and that's just

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<v Speaker 1>the tip of the iceberg. Like modern eagles, utah raptor

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<v Speaker 1>must have had keratin sheets covering its clawbones, which would

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<v Speaker 1>have made these weapons even bigger than their naked skeletons

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<v Speaker 1>suggest a utah raptor's arsenal was rounded out with long

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<v Speaker 1>claw tipped arms and a mouthful of serrated teeth, all

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<v Speaker 1>the better for tearing flesh technically. The first utah raptor

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<v Speaker 1>fossils on record were discovered by paleontologist Jim Jensen of

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<v Speaker 1>Brigham Young University in nineteen seventy five. However, and nobody

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<v Speaker 1>knew quite what to make of these until a team

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<v Speaker 1>led by Kirkland dug up another set of raptor bones

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety one. A utah raptor got its official

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<v Speaker 1>name when Kirkland and his colleagues published a paper introducing

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<v Speaker 1>the animal in nineteen ninety three, which fittingly is the

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<v Speaker 1>same year that Jurassic Park was stomped into theaters. The

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<v Speaker 1>creature's full scientific name utah Raptor Ostrom Mazie salutes raptor

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<v Speaker 1>expert John Ostrom and animatronics creator Chris Mays, who helped

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<v Speaker 1>the research effort. The scientists did consider calling the dino

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<v Speaker 1>utah Raptor Spielbergey after a certain movie director, but that

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<v Speaker 1>never came to pass. Utah Raptor remains are known from

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<v Speaker 1>four different localities across Grant County. One of these sites

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<v Speaker 1>has yielded a nine ton sandstone megablock filled with assorted

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<v Speaker 1>dinosaur bones. According to researchers, that's probably what's left of

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<v Speaker 1>a Cretaceous quicksand type pit. Some iguanadont bones are included

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<v Speaker 1>in the mix, but the real highlight is the raptor material.

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<v Speaker 1>Kirkland says that the block has yielded fossils from dozens

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<v Speaker 1>of individual utah raptor, and in a stroke of luck,

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<v Speaker 1>many of those were babies or juveniles when they died.

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<v Speaker 1>That could bring us a few steps closer to understanding

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<v Speaker 1>how this fearsome predator grew up. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article utah Raptor the Salty Saga of a

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<v Speaker 1>Killer Dinosaur on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For

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<v Speaker 1>four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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<v Speaker 1>Yes