ERLIKOSAURUS' BRAIN

[Tetanurae@aol.com]

I am sorry to go through this again and again.  I am sure some list members
are getting bored with the constant back and forth.  I wrote a post to the
list about a year and a half ago concerning this which can be found at:

http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1996Dec/0180.html

Something I would like to explain more clearly is this: the braincase of
Erlikosaurus is fused and the sutures obliterated.  The means that since the
sutures are obliterates throughout the entire structure, then any pneumatic
areas could easily move from one embryonic bone to the other.  

Living tissue is extremely plastic.  Let us suppose that the ur-therizinosaur
is a bullatosaur with parasphenoid sinuses.  Also, let us say that the sutures
between the braincase bones were obliterated.  What would happen?

The internal parasphenoid sinuses would have easily been able to travel from
the parasphenoid across to the basisphenoid section of the fused braincase.

The fact that Barsbold and Clark et al labelled the posterior most part the
basisphenoid proves nothing since the parasphenoid is part of the bulbous
structure too and all the bones are fused.

Peter Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com