Neural-observation

[rhengst@purduenc.edu (Richard Hengst)]

  I had aTriceratops "lumbar" vertebra with me the other day which I was
showing to a friend of mine who runs a research lab specializing in spinal
cord injury.   One look (literally 5 seconds from the time I brought it
out) and EVERYONE there excitedly said some variant of "you can sure tell
these things are cold-blooded".  (They are neuro people, not thermal
physiologists).  This was new to me but is intuitively appealing.
Ectotherms (or variations thereof) apparently have smaller neural canals
than endotherms of equal size - something I was not aware of.  Whether it
is true or not, I cannot say, but given the fact that these guys have
looked at hundreds of thousands of spinal cord cross sections, it is an
interesting observation.

Rich

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Richard Hengst
Biol. Sciences
Purdue Univ. / North Central
Westville, IN  46391
phone   219/785-5251
fax     219  785-5355
email   rhengst@purduenc.edu