Silesaurus (Triassic dinosauriform) dental microwear

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


A new online paper:



Tai Kubo and Mugino O. Kubo (2013)
Dental microwear of a Late Triassic dinosauriform, Silesaurus opolensis.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (in press)
available online 05 Jun 2013
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4202/app.2013.0027
http://app.pan.pl/article/item/app20130027.html

Silesaurus opolensis belongs to Silesauridae, the closest sister group
to dinosaurs. The present study analyzed the dental  microwear
patterns of Silesaurus opolensis. Low pit-to-scratch ratios imply they
did not feed on hard objects. Unimodal distributions of both
wear-facet and non-facet scratch orientations indicate simple orthal
jaw movement. Scratch orientation and density differ between
microscopic regions in Silesaurus, and unlike hadrosaurid dinosaurs,
the microwear patterns of small areas are not identical to those of
whole teeth.