Re: SVP DINO-PRESENTATIONS REVIEW (*VERY* LONG)

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> DE KLERK 
> the remains of an extremely small Iguanodontian 
> the femur has a length of roughly 5 centemetres.

     Juvenile?

> SAMPSON et al gave a talk on (yet more) material from Madagascar.  This time,
> on some new, magnificent theropod skull material.  

     Its about time for someone to do a really nice restoration of the
ableiosaurs.  Now that we have decent skull material from at least three
specimens from three diffeent continents, it would make a really fine
subject.

> CZERKAS presented evidence that supported the idea that _Stegosaurus) didn't
> have cheeks, but instead a big turtle-like beak running the whole way up the
> jaw.  He also reitterated his 1987 conclusion that _Stegosaurus_ had a single
> row of plates *ontogenetically*, but later, as the animal grew, and the
> plates got big, he admitted that they seperated off the midline to appear as
> two rows of alternating plates.

      Whats the rationale for this one?  There aren't any articulated
juvinile stegosaur skeletons that I am aware of yet, so I assume he is
basing this on the ontogenetic development of some modern reptile.

> Additionally, he insisted that the spikes
> were held up at about 50 degrees instead of near-horizontal.

     Same question here; Ken Carpenter played around with real stegosaur
spikes and tail vertebrae when putting the DMNH stegosaur mount together
and came to a very different conclusion.

> PAUL showed that the high-metabolism birds and mammals had long illia, and
> that in contrast, reptiles do not.  The similar illia of dinosaurs could be
> correlated to metabolic needs and maximum excercise capacity similar to that
> in birds and mammals.  

      How thecodonts fit into this scheme?

> that the carcass was scavenged by tyrannosaurs, dromaeosaurs and
> multituberculates.

      Taenolabids [sic]?  I thought they were the only multituberculate
group with incisors modified for gnawing, but my info is probably out of
date...

> PADIAN explained how there is no positive evidence to support the idea of
> arboral origins of bird flight.  He additionally said "Pining for the lagoons
> of Solnhoffen" a la Monty Python while a slide of _Archaeopteryx_ was being
> shown.

       Given the rarity of good Late Jurassic vertebrate localities, I
think it would be quite a statistical fluke if _A_._lithographica_ of
Bavaria was the only "flying dinosaur" of its type in the world.  Tying
bird origens to lagoonal environments (if that is what he was trying to
do) is pretty uncertain.
     By the way, someone needs to do an intensively thought out and
researched book or paper on the likeylhood of associating biomolecules
with fossils.  The very premise seems unlikely but a lot of prestigious
names and institutions seem to be getting in on the act; I never know WHAT
to think anymore. 
     My Sue posting seems to have sparked another innapropriate fossil
ownership debate; my fault entirely for starting and to a certain extent
propogating it, and my apologies to overseas subscribers who don't
really give a crap.  
 
LN Jeff
O-