How Did I Miss That?
Welcome to Episode 14,
It’s a Bird…No, No It Isn’t.
I’m Lisa Blank and this is How Did I Miss That?
I’ve always considered myself somewhat of a Jill of all knowledge, similar to a Jack of all trades. I feel like I know a little about a lot of topics but am always on the lookout for more. Hence the creation of this podcast you’re listening to right now. I created it with the sole purpose of putting to good use all of the time I spend chasing through rabbit holes on the internet. One idea leads to the next fact which always sends me to something else and I end up with more degrees of separation than Kevin Bacon. Kind of like how looking up lava flows after a friend visited Hawaii led to research about volcanoes on the moon and eventually had me learning unknown facts about obscure dinosaurs. It’s how my mind and apparently Google works.
But that’s where we find ourselves today. Learning about a dinosaur that you may not have known existed and up until recently, neither did paleontologists. Nor did they immediately even believe that what they were looking at was an actual dinosaur and not a hoax. It’s called Halszkaraptor and its features were just as unique as its name.
In 2017 scientists got their hands on a fossil specimen of a new species of dinosaur that they believe shows traits of living both on land and in the water. I say “got their hands on” because the fossil was illegally poached from Mongolia and spent years in private collections before ending up with scientists who returned it to its home country. Special thanks to François Escuillié (es sue lee ā), a collector and fossil dealer who is credited for turning it over to science.
When paleontologists took a look at the specimen, they first thought that it was a chimera (ky meer uh) or a mix of multiple fossils. None of the pieces seemed to make sense when putting them together to only form one dinosaur.
Quick aside…did you know that when the platypus was discovered in Australia in the late 1700s, people in Europe thought it too was a hoax because it was so bizarre? I wonder if people thought the same about the capybara when it was discovered. But that was another episode. Back to the Halszkaraptor…
Halszkaraptor lived in the Late Cretaceous period around 75 million years ago. It was the size of a mallard with razor-shape claws at the end of its long legs and a duck-billed snout atop its long swanlike neck. Inside that duck-billed snout were lots of very interesting teeth. It had more front teeth than any other dinosaur and those teeth curved backwards like that of a crocodile. This led scientists to believe that Halszkaraptor lived an amphibious lifestyle. Its long neck is similar to modern animals which ambush their prey in the water and the curved teeth would have allowed it to hold on to its prey once caught. Scientists also determined that its neurovascular system was similar to crocodiles, but its short tail and long legs point to it walking more upright than crocs. All of these features would lead most to believe it was a bird of some sort, but that’s not the case. Paleontologists have classified it as a primitive member of Dromaeosaurs (dro me o sores), or non-avian theropods, or broken down into 5-year-old English, it was a dinosaur that wasn’t a bird but had hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Dromaeosaurs include velociraptors to give you an image…think Blue from Jurassic World, only smaller and more duck looking.
Scientists, paleontologists, and researchers are still arguing about the whether or not Halszkaraptor was semi-aquatic or related to modern birds. Maybe they’ll find out one day, but my guess is that we’ll never really know. What I do know is that my idea of heaven is watching the world from day one and seeing exactly how it all played out. From the Big Bang or however this world started to the dinosaurs to what really happened to Amelia Earhart. And where exactly is Jimmy Hoffa?! I want to know it all! And when I find out, you can guarantee I’ll share it with you in quick 5-minute episodes.
Thanks for listening! If you like what you’re hearing, please make sure to share this podcast with all your friends and neighbors. And don’t forget to click follow or subscribe. Then join me every Tuesday and Friday as I uncover another interesting tidbit of knowledge and wonder… how did I miss that?!
