The Dinosaurs That Evolution Forgot

Where are all the east coast dinosaurs? Why don’t we find famous species like Triceratops in Central Park? Turns out, evolution and geology came together to make the east coast into an ancient lost world of weird dinosaurs.

Correction: 02:05 Anchisaurus was 6 feet long, not 6 meters

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References:

[eons]

We made a mistake! At around 02:05 Blake says that Anchisaurus was about 6 meters long, when it was actually about 6 feet long. Thank you to everyone watching closely enough to catch that!

[AurenStormriver]

Absolutely loving that Appalachia is just extremely weird even on a geological level.

[SB-qmwg]

The East Coast, West Coast rivalry goes way further back then some folks know. 🦎

[mikamekaze]

A few years ago I walked a couple miles into Gettysburg to see the Dinosaur Bridge- A small footbridge with dinosaur tracks in the stones used to build it. I was amazed to find the stones had been sourced from a quarry only a few miles away- I had assumed they came from far out of state. The only fossils I'd ever been familiar with from my state were plant or marine. It was exciting to learn we had so much more!

[davidsmith]

It's very interesting to think about how important random chance has been in understanding dinosaurs. The right fossils, at the right times, emerging to be seen by the right people with the right scientific knowledge. That's a lot of things to have to go right! And I'm very glad that they did and that you all do such a brilliant job telling us about them!

[TerraStoryMYA]

I did my senior capstone project in college on Appalachian dinosaurs. Appalachia has lots of paleo-biodiversity that needs to be explored further!

[michellek]

Fascinating! I’m an East Coaster and I’ve often wondered why we have found so few dinosaurs here.

[CoralReaper]

3:42 as someone who lives in Maryland, it's kind of an honor to have Acrocanthosaurus be discovered there

[yescats]

The east coast dinosaur roars were assumed to sound like

[fraliexb]

I'm not sure, but I'm blaming Suge Knight for the East Coast Dinosaurs deaths.

[thaumaturgeslit]

Nico Robin being am Eontologist makes a lot of sense.

[moukidelmar]

I live in SW Virginia and we don't see a lot of dinosaur fossils in Appalachia because the Appalachian mountains absolutely dominated the subcontinent throughout the mesozoic. People don't realuze that the Appalachian mountains today are just the barest weathered ankles of what they used to be, the Appalachian mountains used to be larger than the Alps and throughout the Mesozoic they were in their errosion phase, which is why dinosaur finds in the east are almost exclusively found at the coasts or in river mouths like in New Jersey, Alabana or the Chesapeake Bay. Around here, we find a lot of fossils from the archeozoic and paleozoic, like sea creatures, coal and limestone, because the Appalachian mountains used to be sea floor, and lots of fossils from the cenozoic (stuff that hasn't been gone that long like mastodon teeth)

[peterschorn]

"...the Newark Supergroup..."

I'm imagining a Family Guy-style hard cut to a bunch of dinosaurs in a huge arena, singing ABBA in New Jersey accents.

[Lord.Kiltridge]

When I was a youth, paleontologists were in the habit of speaking in absolutes. They would say things like "Dinosaurs were slow and cold blooded" and "Not related to birds." This language seriously undermined their credibility. I'm glad this has been recognized and the language replaced with more flexible choices.

[Gnome_with_no_name]

I can't not picture the east coast dinosaurs just quietly moving into the hollers of Kentucky, playing dino-banjos and forming jug bands.

[ravioliis_]

whoever made their name Nico Robin, I love you

[christopherrowe]

Not dinosaur related, but one of the coolest East Coast fossils shown to me was of an intact clam at Bacon's Castle near Williamsburg, Virginia. The guide explained that finding an intact clam instead of just a shell meant it was buried alive and fossilized. It was dated from the 35-mya meteor impact that helped shape the Chesapeake Bay.

[GreenPoint_one]

The east-coast preserving old fauna as isolated island continent sounds a lot like the American Australia xD

[beedrillbot]

I would like to add a few things that I personally have learned when doing my research on Appalachian Biodiversity.

For one the Newark Supergroup, while not containing a massive number of animals, has preserved several Aetosaurs, Psuedosuchians, and a few Archosauromorphs such as Rutiodon, Hypuronector (a weird little drepanosaur with a leaf shaped tail), Doswellia, Lucasuchus, Carnufex, and a unique species of Postosuchus (P. alisonae).

Additionally in the Portland formation, there have been very few but interesting fossils that did preseve. Such as Podokesaurus, which was lost in a fire in 1917, Anchisaurus, which we have more than a handful of fossils from, as well as two interesting recent finds. One being the distal end of a humerous from a Theropod, which is more similar to the ones found in Crylophosaurus, than Dilophosaurus, as well as being much larger and denser than both of theirs. As well as the wrist bone of a Non-pterodactyloid Pterosaur, which is uniquely dense for a pterosaur wrist, potentially meaning it could be a forest dwelling pterosaur opposed to the more typical oceanic pterosaurs we know.

Meanwhile the Late Cretaceous fossil beds are very interesting. As deinosuchus appears to be present throughout most of them, whereas the two know Appalachian large carnivores from the late cretaceous are rather small, with one Appalachisaurus fossil having Deinosuchus bite marks on it. Potentially pointing to Deinosuchus being the dominant predator of costal Appalachia during the Cenomanian. However because we are lacking a massive amount of Western Appalachian fossils with only a tantalizing amount from bloat and float specimens. We have no clue what lived in the western plains of Appalachia aside from a few scarce Hadrosaur and Nodosaur fossils.

Speaking of Hadrosauroids, Appalachian Hadrosaurs appear to be split into three distinct groups. Small bodied Hadrosaurs such as Claosaurus which were 6 meters long or shorter. Medium sized Hadrosaurs such as Hadrosaurus which were anywhere from 6-10 meters long. And Edmontosaurus sized Hadrosauroids with the current only known examples of Parrosaurus and Hypsibema, which could be anywhere from (12-19) meters long. These massive Appalachian Hadrosauroids also have had a difficult problem in their placement on the hadrosaur family tree, potentially pointing to them forming their own distinct group of Appalachian Hadrosauroids.


This refugia appears to have come to an end some time during the Maastrictian, as begining in Maastrictian age rocks, we have found distinctly Laramidian fauna. Such as a Ceratopsian tooth crown being found in Missouri. Or there being quite a few lambeosaur and saurolophine fossils being discovered in New Jersey. While the Hadrosauroid fossils at the same time appear to have become rarer. Though that might be because it is a costal enviroment with its own bias.

Additionally an extremely fragmentary Lambeosaur, Hadrosaurid, and Tyrannosaur fossils was discovered in Maastrictian age rock from Nunavut Canada, showing just a glimpse into Arctic Appalachian fauna, though it is even more fragmentary than most Appalachian dig sites, which is saying a lot.

I felt like adding this merely because I have become extremely interested in Appalachian fauna, especially since it so rarely gets covered at all. Despite us having at least two decent bone beds in Missouri and North Carolina. Them being the Tar Heel/ Coachmen Formation of North Carolina which has a wealth of fossils preserved with at least three Hadrosaurs, a Leptoceratopsid jaw, two Tyrannosauroids (Appalachiasaurus and a Dryptosauroid), two dromeosaurs (Saurornitholestes and a Deinonychus sized Dromeosaur), and some Nodosaur and Deinosuchus remains, and a still unamed Missouri bone bed that has preserved a Parrosaurus nesting ground, along with some fragmentary Tyrannosaur, Dromeosaur, and Ornithomimid remains.

Sure Appalachian fauna are generally terribly preserved on account of most being sea deposits. But I think this video is a great way for people to start learning about Appalachian fauna. I just wanted to add some of what I know about them from just learning about them in my own time.

[andyjay]

Is it also possible that the early Appalachian Mountains also played a role in isolating dinosaurs to the east of them before the Interior Seaway opened? Remember, they were once the size of the Himalayas.