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Symmetry
Actually, if you look at the skulls of very social beasts among the
mammals and, dare I say it?, the dinosaurs, they tend to be the most
asymmetrical. This is especially true for things that go into combat
but from my experience also includes display stuff. Pachyceph's are
very very asymmetrical. I haven't measured bird heads but I suspect
those would hold up as well - another pet project. Anyway, I think
asymmetry is the rule here.
Now as far as pterosaurs, let's start getting some real references
together here on the description of males and females and crests and
stuff. Having done a good bit of this on dinos, I know how involved
and tricky it can be and would like to see if the case is really
convincing that we really have sexual dimorphism, variation, or
allometry - or a combination of such. If one morph is basically smaller,
then a crest could be smaller and still fulfill the aerodynamic needs
of the beast. So let's figure this out. Who's got the refs? I can;t
recall which are the critical papers and would like to hunt them down
and really give them a look-see, as my Penn. Dutch mother would say.
Ralph Chapman, NMNH