Re: Ye Olde Duckbill Dinosaur

[MBell16766@aol.com]

I've mentioned this before on the list, but I'll take another shot at it.
Back in the 60's, Bruce Erickson and crew  erected a mount of a very large
Triceratops at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. Bruce studied the
possible poses of the frontlimb and came to the same conclusion as did
Osborn, Matthew and Gregory at the AMNH as well as Lull at Yale and, more
recently, Rolf Johnson and John Ostrom at the Milwaukee museum for their
Torosaurus mount.

When the original work was being done for the St. Paul mount, I was a
fledgling paleoartist. If  I remember correctly, it was Bob Sloan at the U of
Minnesota and one of his grad students who advised me upon seeing my
Triceratops restorations that I didn't have my Triceratops frontlimbs
sprawling enough! So I've come all the way around the bend and back on this
question.The point I would like to make here is that if you had a crane one
could lift the Science Museum Triceratops mount, with the everted elbows and
all, up and place it in the Ceratopsian tracks Martin Lockley has described
from Golden, Colorado, and the fit, allowing for scale, would be quite exact.
I believe the AMNH "elatus" mount to be close to the truth too- but you must
remember that the shoulder girdle and front limbs come from a much larger
specimen than the rest of this composite, perhaps exaggerating the pose
somewhat. At any rate, I sure wish Rolf and Ostrom would publish on this as
well as others who may diagree. I would also like to point out that there is
a Protoceratops skeleton at the AMNH ( reproduced in Lull's Revision of the
Ceratopsia ),on display in its original death pose that appears to have an
elbows-out articulation which I assume is natural.
I also wish more of you folks could see the St. Paul Triceratops mount and
the other dinosaur reconstructions they have there. If anyone is doing a new
textbook, their reproduction would be a fresh look from the old stuff you
usually see.

Thanks from Dan Varner who's elbows are old, sore, and definitely sprawling.