Parasaurolophus

[Adam Yates <zooamy@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

Rachel Clark recently raised the subject of Parasaurolophus, I have no 
information to give on this genus but I do have query that has long 
bugged me. On a much illustrated mounted skeleton of P. walkeri (type 
specimen?) one of the neural spines is angled backwards creating a notch 
at about the right place to recieve the nasal crest when the head is 
directed upwards. It has been speculated in some popular books that this 
notch received the crest in order to brace it as it was used as a foliage 
deflector as the animal crashed through dense vegetation. This is very 
hard to imagine particularly because when the head is positioned so that 
the crest is "locked" in the notch then the throat is exposed and likely 
to thump into low branches rather than the so called deflecting surface 
of the crest. My question is, is the orientation of this spine 
pathological? have any other parasaurolophus skeletons been found? If 
so do they have this notch?. 

Adam Yates