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Allosaurus "thagomized" in pubic boot by Stegosaurus + other news
Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com
Some recent news and blog items:
Allosaurus "thagomized" in pubic boot by Stegosaurus tail spike
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-kung-fu-stegosaur.html
from:
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2014AM/webprogram/Paper247355.html
STEGOSAURIAN MARTIAL ARTS: A JURASSIC CARNIVORE STABBED BY A TAIL
SPIKE, EVIDENCE FOR DYNAMIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN A LIVE HERBIVORE AND
A LIVE PREDATOR
BAKKER, Robert T., ZOEHFELD, K. Weidner, and MOSSBRUCKER, Matthew T.
Were carnivorous dinosaurs active predators, killing their own prey,
or scavengers depending upon carcasses found dead, or a mixture of
both? Today, large herbivores -- buffalo, rhinos, hippos -- often
fight back, damaging the attackers. Many dinosaurian herbivores
carried horns or spikes or other potentially dangerous weapons. Such
armament may have functioned in defense, courtship displays and
intraspecific combat. If dinosaurian predators regularly attacked
well-armed herbivores, we would expect to find predator skeletons with
wounds that can be attributed to particular herbivores.
We have analyzed an adult allosaur skeleton from the Brushy Basin
Member of the Morrison Formation, Late Jurassic, Albany County,
Wyoming. A stab wound penetrated through the lower pubis, piercing the
entire pubic “boot”. A massive infection ate away a baseball-sized
sector of the bone; probably this infection spread upwards into the
soft tissue attached here, the thigh muscles and adjacent intestines
and reproductive organs. Lack of healing in the wound indicates that
the allosaur died from the consequences of the strike.
The wound has the shape of a cone. The size and shape match that of
stegosaur tail spikes from specimens dug in the same strata. The
strike appears to have come from directly below the allosaur. To
deliver a vertical blow, a stegosaur would have to twist the tail tip
because in normal posture the spikes point outward and backward.
Stegosaur tails are unusual: near the hips the tail muscles were
massive; functional accessory joints (zygapophyses) and muscle
attachments continue far distally to the tail tip. We interpret such
tail specializations as providing both power and precision in the
direction of the spike trajectory. Therefore we interpret the allosaur
as a victim of herbivore defense.
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Hadrosaur mummy "Dakota" to remain on display at North Dakota Heritage Center
http://www.jamestownsun.com/content/3m-deal-will-keep-rare-mummified-dinosaur-display
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Paleoartist Ely M. Kish obituary
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?n=ely-m-kish&pid=172854851
****
Blog comments on recent ceratopsian taxonomy
http://waxing-paleontological.blogspot.com/2014/10/taxonomic-messes.html
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Titanosaur diversity on Iberian Peninsula (in Spanish)
http://godzillin.blogspot.com/2014/10/la-diversidad-de-titanosaurios-de-la.html
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Planet Germany film (in German)
http://www.planetdeutschland-derfilm.de/
Gallery
http://www.planetdeutschland-derfilm.de/galerie/
includes feathery (and non-feathery) green Compsognathus + munching
Plateosaurus
http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/kultur/kino+tv/kino-filmkritik_artikel,-Planet-Deutschland-Bildgewaltige-Reise-_arid,1214045.html#.VEaCofnF_To
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New Brazilian stamps feature dinosaurs Pycnonemosaurus, Uberabatitan,
and Oxalaia, also giant Permian amphibian Prionosuchus and groundsloth
Eremotherium (in Portuguese)
http://cidadeverde.com/saoraimundononato/63176/comeca-a-circular-hoje-selo-com-dinossauro-que-viveu-no-piaui
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