RE: stegosaur

[ornstn@hookup.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>          <Although the alternating plate arrangement is
>effective for thermo-regulation, I'm just not 100% convinced.>
>Nor am I (sorry, Jim).  First, Stegosaurus stenops, used in the initial 
>study, is unusual among stegosaurs for its large plates.  Other 
>stegosaurs (e.g. Huayangosaurus, Stegosaurus armatus ) have a mass equal 
>to or approaching that of S. stenops.  They must have endured similar 
>levels of heat stress, yet, they have much smaller plates.  An
>alternative hypothesis I propose is that the plates were used in
>display and species recognition.
>

Excuse me, Dr. Carpenter, but does this not assume that the other stegosaurs
were exposed to the same kind of climate regimes as S. stenops?  Though I am
not trying to support the thermoregulation hypothesis, is it not at least
possible that S. stenops lived in an area (or behaved in a way) that exposed
it to greater degrees of heat stress than those experienced by its relatives
of equal mass?

Presumably, of course, the plates could serve both functions
(thermoregulation and display).  Am I correct in thinking that there is
evidence that the skin over the plates was highly vascularized?
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
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