[martin@srv0.ems.ed.ac.uk: Dinosaur skull brings a cry from the past]

[bz050@freenet.carleton.ca (Ben S. Roesch)]

    ================= Begin forwarded message =================

    From: martin@srv0.ems.ed.ac.uk (Martin Adamson)
    To: forteana@lists.primenet.com
    Subject: Dinosaur skull brings a cry from the past
    Date: Wed, 06 Mar

    
    The Electronic Telegraph  Wednesday 6 March 1996  Home News
    
    
    
    Dinosaur skull brings a cry from the past
    
    By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
    
    THE bellow of a dinosaur that has been extinct for 75 million years is about
    to be heard again, thanks to the efforts of computer scientists at a nuclear
    weapons research centre.
    
    Computer scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, working 
with
    the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and the State Museum of 
Pennsylvania,
    are using 3-D computer imaging to create a detailed model of the skull of a
    rare, crested duck-billed dinosaur, known as Parasaurolophus.
    
    The team plans to use the 3-D skull model to simulate sounds that
    Parasaurolophus made with the four-and-a-half foot crest that rose from the
    back of its skull.
    
    The crest contained a labyrinth of chambers connected to the dinosaur's
    breathing passages. Most paleontologists believe the crest served as a
    resonating chamber and allowed the dinosaur to make loud, low-frequency
    sounds. The crests probably also helped duck-billed dinosaurs to recognise
    each other.
    
    The Parasaurolophus skull and crest were discovered last August in the
    De-na-zin Wilderness area of north-western New Mexico by Dr Robert Sullivan,
    senior curator at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.
    
    The find included the 4.5 foot long nasal crest and the lower left jaw with
    all 43 rows of teeth. The bone is jet-black and glossy. However, some of the
    elements are fractured and the crest is somewhat distorted by crushing.
    
    Scientists then used a body scanner to produce about 500 X-ray images of the
    dinosaur skull which were assembled into a computer model that can be viewed
    inside and out, and from any angle.