Re: Re: Trike fights

[Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)]

>>Yes, the jaw muscles did attach to the top of the frill, but they got 
>>there via spaces *inside* the skull.  Check out a _Psittacosaurus_ 
>>skull.  The jaw musculature runs from the coronoid eminence straight up 
>>through the inside of the skull.  The jaw muscles of neoceratopians 
>>worked the same way, running up through holes in the top of the skull 
>>(the supratemporal fenestrae, present in all diapsids) and out over the 
>>frill.
>
>O.K, But how can that work for animals like T-tops, that don't have any holes
in
>that area.  The only way for the muscle to get to the upper frill is to go
>outside the head (as an aside, the noch between the jugal and the frill could
be
>where the jaw muscle went).

Trikes DO have a pair of supratemporal fenestrae (I mistyped "infra-" last
time - major embarassing Whoops!).  Perhaps they were not prepped out on
your specimen?  Look at the base of the frill, directly posterior to the
brow horns.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist
Dept. of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742
Email:Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)
Fax: 301-314-9661
Phone:301-405-4084